Strata Florida was a mediaeval abbey in the old Welsh county of Cardiganshire, between Aberystwyth and Tregaron. The church was built in the second half of the twelfth century and was bigger than the surviving St. David's Cathedral. It had a length of over 200 feet. The name sounds Latin but is supposed by an old book on my shelf to be a corruption of the Welsh "Ystrad Fflur". Several Welsh princes were buried here. Impressive ruins of the abbey remain.

Nearby a railway line ran through the village of Ystrad Meurig, but the station was called Strata Florida, possibly to signal the nearness of the abbey for tourists. Quite possibly the railway was closed in the 1960's as part of the "Beeching" cuts, still remembered with bitterness in many parts !