St Deinst, Llangarron

The church of St Deinst nestles in the small village of Llangarron in the south of Herefordshire. The name of the parish is derived from “Llan” meaning place and “Garron” being the name of a tributary of the Wye which runs through the village centre. An alternative view is that the village is named after the Welsh word “garan” which means a heron, stork or crane. This may explain the representation of such a bird in the church gates.

St Deinst was a Celtic saint who died in c584 and tradition suggests he founded a church in Llangarron under his name, one which does not appear elsewhere in England. He is identified with St Deiniel or Deiniol who was an abbot-bishop of the sixth century, who founded the monasteries of Bangor on the Menai Straits and to whom the mediaeval Bangor Cathedral was dedicated.

Records of a church being in Llangarron go back as far as Edward the Confessor, when a wooden church was consecrated under the heirs of Ceheric ap Eleu and other Celtic names, and was then re-consecrated under William 1 as “lan garan” church.