Coedcanlas


Coedcanlas is a small parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the eastern shore of the Daugleddau estuary, north of Pembroke, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Together with the parishes of Martletwy, Minwear, Newton North and Lawrenny, it constitutes the community of Martletwy.

Name

The placename is a Welsh placename and means "Cynlas's wood", Cynlas being a Welsh personal name. It appears on a 1578 map as "Coidkenles", presumably an English phonetic rendition.

History

It was once important for export of limestone, which was quarried extensively, but today it consists only of a few farms. In the 1840s, the parish had 169 inhabitants.
Its census populations were: 152 : 167 : 85 : 69 : 32. The percentage of Welsh speakers was 11 : 3 : 0. Part of Little England beyond Wales, it has been essentially English-speaking for 900 years.
The parish church of St Mary, which may have had pre-Conquest origins, was "in decay" in the 17th century, was rebuilt in the 18th century, and is now a ruin again. The parish had an area of.