----- Original Message ----- From: "allen williams" <gerald.williams23@ntlworld.com> To: "SANDRA DAVIES" <sandramdavies@btinternet.com> Cc: <dyfed@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 9:00 AM Subject: Re: [Dyfed] Licence to hold marriages > After 1837, marriages could take place in any premises licensed for > marriages. However, Church of England churches did not need to be > licensed and I assume that that applied in Wales too, since at this time > the Anglican Church was the Established Church in Wales as well as > > However, in 1920 the Church in Wales was disestablished (and > disendowed). In other words, it lost its "official" status and it > follows that it would have lost its automatic right to use its churches > as locations for marriages. Welsh Church (Temporalities) Act 1919 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1919/cukpga_19190065_en_1 Section 6 Saving provisions as to marriages in churches Nothing in this Act or in the Welsh Church Act 1914, shall affect- (a) the law with respect to marriages in Wales or Monmouthshire; or (b) the right of bishops of the Church in Wales to license churches for the solemnization of marriages or to grant licences to marry; The two acts were implemented the following year (1920). > Here's the conundrum: a report of a wedding in the Narberth Weekly > newspaper in 1937 suggests that this wedding was the first held at EW > church. This is counter-intuitive: it must have been about 3 miles or so > from the southern end of Begelly parish around EW to St Mary's at Begelly. > With a church on the doorstep at EW it would make sense for weddings to > be held there especially as the local roads were lousy ... > I am looking > for a explanation as to why EW may not have been used for > weddings pre-1937. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/PEM/Begelly/index.html#ChurchRecords suggests that Begelly was the actual parish church, whilst East Williamston was merely a chapel of ease. As such, it would not have been licenced for marriages (1929 Welsh Church Year Book, quoted just above on the same web page). AJ