Talgarth
Talgarth is a small market town and electoral ward in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 1,724. Notable buildings in the town include its 14th-century parish church and 13th-century Pele Tower, located in the town centre, now home to the Tourist Information and Resource Centre. According to traditional accounts Talgarth was the capital of the early medieval Welsh Kingdom of Brycheiniog, it is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The meaning of the town's name is in the Welsh words tâl and garth, thus "end of the ridge", it appears as Talgart in 1121, as Talgard after 1130, in its present form in the years between 1203 and 1208. The church of Talgarth is recorded in 1488 as dedicated to Sce Wenne Virginis, explained as Gwen, said to have been murdered by the Saxons. In August, the Talgarth Festival of the Black Mountains is held, a popular event attracting thousands of people each year; the town has an annual Christmas lights display, organised by Talgarth Town Council and a team of volunteers.
Talgarth held important links with healthcare for many years as the home of the large psychiatric hospital, the Mid Wales Hospital and the Mid and West Wales College of Nursing and Midwifery. The town was prosperous until the 1980s when changes in health legislation saw the need for such hospitals to be closed; the Mid Wales Hospital closed for good in the 1990s with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Since the town has suffered and economically and as a result lost businesses and shops and confidence among residents: effects similar to those experienced in the South Wales Valleys mining towns; the Romans were in this area and there was a Roman camp at "Y Gaer" near Brecon. Indeed, the Romans were in this area and another Roman fort or station as sometimes these places were referred to has in recent years been found down river of Brecon and not so far from Llangorse lake. Aerial reconnaissance discovered the outline of a yet un-excavated fort. A Roman fort near Cwmdu is of significance to Talgarth as there was a Roman route from Abergavenny via Pen-y-Gaer up the Rhiangoll valley to Talgarth, some experts say to Castell Collen near Llandrindod.
Much evidence has been lost in the intervening 2000 years, but there is growing circumstantial evidence to suggest there is a missing Roman fort in the Talgarth area, at the crossroads of two or three Roman routes, the Roman road from Pen-y-gaer, from Clyro to Y Gaer near Brecon and the river Llynfi itself, although the latter may not be acceptable to some archaeologists. Water routes small ones are not unknown to have been used for man-hauling equipment in small, narrow flat bottom boats. Talgarth was the royal residence of Brychan King of Brycheiniog in the 5th century AD. With three wives, 24 daughters and 22 sons the family was an important force in Wales at that time. Responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout Brecknock, the daughters of Brychan and their descendants account for all of the saints of South Wales and include the grandmother of Saint David; the town was seized by the Norman Bernard of Neufmarché, who issued an undated charter concerning the district. The town became part of Bernard's Lordship of Brecknock.
Castell Dinas was the initial site where a Norman castle was established by the Normans to control the passes on both sides.. However, in the reign of King John, the Lord fell out with the king, the east of the Lordship was detached in punishment, forming a new Marcher Lordship of Blaenllynfi, ruled by someone else. Although the caput of the latter Lordship was Blaenllynfi Castle, Talgarth was its principal town, the Lordship was called The Lordship of Talgarth as a result; the town was in the manor of English Talgarth, there being a manor of Welsh Talgarth, in which Welsh laws prevailed. The Lordship of Blaenllynfi found its way back to the descendants of the last Welsh princes of Brycheiniog. Rhys played a significant part in the implementation of the final coup against Edward II, Edward's son, Edward III, was not well disposed towards him; the lands of the former lordship became a mere barony. During the Jacobite revival support in Talgarth was strong; the town was a Jacobite hotspot, backing Bonnie Prince Charlie in his attempt to retake the Crown for the line of Stuart.
In 1727 a meeting of local Jacobite sympathisers in Talgarth ended with members having to appear before a local magistrate to explain their actions. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie had expected the Welsh Jacobites to offer support, but after Jacobite David Morgan from Penygraig, Quakers Yard was hung and quartered for treason, the Welsh feared persecution; the failure of the Welsh Jacobites to join the House of Stuart Prince in Derby was one of the main failures of the Jacobite uprising. In 1735 Talgarth saw the birth of the Welsh Methodist revival when Howel Harris the most influential person to come from Talgarth, was converted in Talgarth church while listening to a sermon by the Rev. Pryce Davies; the revival would sweep across Wales leading to the development of one of the most influential Welsh denominations, that of the Calvinistic Methodists. It was at Talgarth that William Williams Pantycelyn converted, leading him to bec
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objects d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany; as a material stained glass is glass, coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are used to enhance the design; the term stained glass is applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass and fused to the glass in a kiln.
Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, especially in the larger windows, must support its own weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained intact since the Late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the major form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as "illuminated wall decorations"; the design of a window may be figurative. Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church – episodes from the life of Christ. Stained glass is still popular today, but referred to as art glass, it is prevalent in luxury homes, commercial buildings, places of worship.
Artists and companies are contracted to create beautiful art glass ranging from domes, backsplashes, etc. During the late medieval period, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential material for glass manufacture. Silica requires a high temperature to melt, something not all glass factories were able to achieve; such materials as potash and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network and make the glass more stable. Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, gold produces wine red and violet glass. Much modern red glass is produced using copper, less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the clay pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass, as opposed to flashed glass. Using a blow-pipe, a "gather" of molten glass is taken from the pot heating in the furnace.
The gather is formed to a bubble of air blown into it. Using metal tools, molds of wood that have been soaking in water, gravity, the gather is manipulated to form a long, cylindrical shape; as it cools, it is reheated. During the process, the bottom of the cylinder is removed. Once brought to the desired size it is left to cool. One side of the cylinder is opened, it is put into another oven to heat and flatten it, placed in an annealer to cool at a controlled rate, making the material more stable. "Hand-blown" cylinder and crown glass were the types used in ancient stained-glass windows. Stained glass windows were in churches and chapels as well as many more well respected buildings; this hand-blown glass is created by blowing a bubble of air into a gather of molten glass and spinning it, either by hand or on a table that revolves like a potter's wheel. The centrifugal force causes the molten bubble to flatten, it can be cut into small sheets. Glass formed this way can be either coloured and used for stained-glass windows, or uncoloured as seen in small paned windows in 16th- and 17th-century houses.
Concentric, curving waves are characteristic of the process. The center of each piece of glass, known as the "bull's-eye", is subject to less acceleration during spinning, so it remains thicker than the rest of the sheet, it has the distinctive lump of glass left by the "pontil" rod, which holds the glass as it is spun out. This lumpy, refractive quality means the bulls-eyes are less transparent, but they have still been used for windows, both domestic and ecclesiastical. Crown glass is still made today, but not on a large scale. Rolled glass is produced by pouring molten glass onto a metal or graphite table and rolling it into a sheet using a large metal cylinder, similar to rolling out a pie crust; the rolling can be done by machine. Glass can be "double rolled", which means it is passed through two cylinders at once to yield glass of a specified thickness (typically about 1/8" or
Cadoc
Saint Cadoc or Cadog was a 5th–6th-century Abbot of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire, Wales, a monastery famous from the era of the British church as a centre of learning, where Illtud spent the first period of his religious life under Cadoc's tutelage. Cadoc is credited with the establishment of many churches in Brittany Dyfed and Scotland, he is known as Cattwg Ddoeth, "the Wise", a large collection of his maxims and moral sayings were included in Volume III of the Myvyrian Archaiology. He is listed in the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology under 21 September, his Norman-era "Life" is a hagiography of importance to the case for the historicity of Arthur as one of seven saints' lives that mention Arthur independently of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Cadoc's story appears in a Vita Cadoci written shortly before 1086 by Lifris of Llancarfan. Llancarfan did not survive the intrusion of Norman power into South Wales, being dissolved about 1086. Cadoc began life under a cloud of violence.
His father, Gwynllyw the Bearded, was one of the lesser kings of Wales, a brother of Saint Petroc, a robber chieftain. He wanted to propose to Princess Gwladys, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, a neighboring chieftain, but Brychan turned away the envoys asking for Gwladys' hand. Wildly in love and Gwladys eloped from her father’s court at Brecon and escaping over the mountains in a raid in which 200 of Gwynllyw's 300 followers perished. Born into the royal families of Gwynllwg and Brycheiniog, it is said, he worked miracles before his birth. Strange lights shone in his parents’ house and the cellars were miraculously filled with food. Cadoc was born in Monmouthshire around the year 497. An angel summoned the hermit Meuthi to baptise and teach him. A holy well afterwards flowed with wine and milk, it is thought. After the birth of his son, Gwynllyw went on a wild celebratory raid with a new band of fearless warriors. Among other livestock, he stole the cow of St. Tathyw of Caerwent; this is Tathan, a reputed early abbot of nearby Caerwent whose dedications appear around Llantwit Major.
Tathyw boldly went to confront him, demanding the return of the cow. On a sudden impulse, or guided by divine inspiration, Gwynllyw decided Cadoc would go to live under the monk's care, he was sent away to be educated at Tathyw's monastery in Caerwent. Cadoc picked up a basic knowledge of Latin and received a rudimentary education that prepared him for further studies in Ireland and Wales. Most important, Cadoc learned to appreciate the life of a priest. One day while in the Cardiff district of Glamorganshire, Cadoc was being chased by an armed swineherd from an enemy tribe; as he ran through the woods looking for a place to hide, he came upon a wild boar, white with age. Disturbed by his presence, the boar made three fierce bounds in his direction, but Cadoc's life was spared when the boar miraculously disappeared. Cadoc took this as a heavenly sign, marked the spot with three tree branches; the valley was owned by his uncle, King Pawl of Penychen, who made a present of the land to his nephew.
The location became the site of the great church college and monastery at Llancarvan. Maches, the sister of Cadoc according to tradition, was killed by robbers who were stealing her finest ram. Tathan, to whom the murderers confessed their crime, built a church on the spot. In adulthood Cadoc refused to take charge of his father's army, "preferring to fight for Christ", he founded his first monastery at Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan, from there he went to Ireland to study for three years. Returning to Wales, he studied with a teacher of rhetoric from Italy, he travelled to Scotland where he founded a monastery at Cambuslang. Back at Llancarfan, his influence helped it to grow into one of the chief monasteries in South Wales. One tradition has it that he went on pilgrimage to Rome, but more certain is the knowledge of time spent in Brittany, he settled there on an island in the Etel river, now called L'Ile de Cado, where he built an oratory, founded a monastery and devoted himself to spreading the Gospel.
There are chapels dedicated to him at Belz and Locoal-Mendon in Morbihan and at Gouesnac'h in Finistère, where he is called upon to cure the deaf. His name is the basis of some thirty Breton place-names. According to Huddleston, most Welsh writers assign the founding of Llancarfan to the period of St. Germanus's visit to Britain in A. D. 447, stating further that the first principal was St. Dubric, or Dubricius, on whose elevation to the episcopate St. Cadoc, or Cattwg, succeeded. On the other hand, he notes that the Life of St. Germanus, written by Constantius, a priest of Lyons, about fifty years after the death of the saint, says nothing at all of any school founded by him or under his auspices, in Britain, nor is mention made of his presence in Wales. An alternate tradition holds that Llancarvan monastery or "Church of the Stags", in Glamorganshire, not far from the Bristol Channel, was founded in the latter part of the fifth century by Cadoc. Here he established a college, which became the seminary of many great and holy men.
The spot at first seemed an impossible one, an inaccessible marsh, but he and his monks drained and cultivated it, transforming it into one of the most famous and attractive religious homes in South Wales. The plan of the bu
Wales
Wales is a country, part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Bristol Channel to the south, it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon, its highest summit; the country has a changeable, maritime climate. Welsh national identity emerged among the Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of England's conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century; the whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party.
Welsh national feeling grew over the century. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, development of the mining and metallurgical industries transformed the country from an agricultural society into an industrial nation. Two-thirds of the population live in South Wales, including Cardiff, Swansea and the nearby valleys. Now that the country's traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales' economy depends on the public sector and service industries and tourism. Although Wales shares its political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, a majority of the population in most areas speaks English as a first language, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is bilingual. Over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west.
From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the "land of song", in part due to the eisteddfod tradition. At many international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, Wales has its own national teams, though at the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete as part of a Great Britain team. Rugby union is seen as an expression of national consciousness; the English words "Wales" and "Welsh" derive from the same Germanic root, itself derived from the name of the Gaulish people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer indiscriminately to all non-Germanic peoples. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Britons in particular, Wēalas when referring to their lands; the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. In Britain, the words were not restricted to modern Wales or to the Welsh but were used to refer to anything that the Anglo-Saxons associated with the Britons, including other non-Germanic territories in Britain and places in Anglo-Saxon territory associated with Britons, as well as items associated with non-Germanic Europeans, such as the walnut.
The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales. These words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen"; the use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, different from other peoples. In particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage and language to the Welsh; the word came into use as a self-description before the 7th century. It is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. In Welsh literature, the word Cymry was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic term Brythoniaid continued to be used to describe any of the Britonnic peoples and was the more common literary term until c. 1200. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh.
Until c. 1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of these names, Cambrian and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales and the Welsh people. Examples include the Cambrian Mountains, the newspaper Cambrian News, the organisations Cambrian Airways, Cambrian Railways, Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art. Outside Wales, a related form survives as the name Cumbria in North West England, once a part of Yr Hen Ogledd; the Cumbric language, thought to
Brecon
Brecon, archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town and community in Powys, with a population in 2001 of 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. It was the county town of Brecknockshire. Brecon is the third-largest town in Powys, after Ystradgynlais, it lies north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, but is just within the Brecon Beacons National Park. The Welsh name, means "mouth of the Honddu", it is derived from the River Honddu, which meets the River Usk near the town centre, a short distance away from the River Tarell which enters the Usk a few hundred metres upstream. After the Dark Ages the original Welsh name of the kingdom in whose territory Brecon stands was "Brycheiniog", anglicised to Brecknock or Brecon, derives from Brychan, the eponymous founder of the kingdom. Before the building of the bridge over the Usk, Brecon was one of the few places where the river could be forded. In Roman Britain Y Gaer, Brecon was established as a Roman cavalry base for the conquest of Roman Wales and Brecon was first established as a military base.
The confluence of the Honddu and the River Usk made for a valuable defensive position for the Norman castle which overlooks the town, built by Bernard de Neufmarche in the late 11th century. Gerald of Wales made some speeches in 1188 to recruit men to go to the Crusades. Brecon's town walls were constructed by Humphrey de Bohun after 1240; the walls were built of cobble, with four gatehouses and was protected by ten semi-circular bastions. In 1400 the Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr rose in rebellion against English rule, in response in 1404 100 marks was spent by the royal government improving the fortifications to protect Brecon in the event of a Welsh attack. Brecon's walls were destroyed during the English Civil War. Today only fragments survive, including some parts of one of the gatehouses. In Shakespeare's play King Richard III, the Duke of Buckingham is suspected of supporting the Welsh pretender Richmond, declares: O, let me think on Hastings and be goneTo Brecknock, while my fearful head is on!
A Priory was dissolved in 1538, Brecon's Dominican Friary of St Nicholas was suppressed in August of the same year. About 250 m north of the castle stands Brecon Cathedral, a modest building compared to many cathedrals; the role of cathedral is a recent one, was bestowed upon the church in 1923 with the formation of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon from what was the archdeaconry of Brecon — a part of the Diocese of St David's. Saint Mary's church began as a chapel of ease to the priory but most of the building is dated to medieval times; the West Tower, some 27 m high, was built in 1510 by Edward, Duke of Buckingham at a cost of £2,000. The tower has eight bells. In March 2007 the bells were removed from the church tower for refurbishment; the church is a Grade II* listed building. The Church of St. David, referred to locally as Llanfaes Church, was founded in the early sixteenth century; the first Parish Priest, Maurice Thomas, was installed there by John Blaxton, Archdeacon of Brecon in 1555.
The name is derived from the Welsh – Llandewi yn y Maes – which translates as St. David's in the Field, it is probable that the site and the name of the present Church were chosen because of the close proximity of a fresh water well called Ffynnon Dewi, situated 150 metres south of the church. Plough Lane Chapel known as Plough United Reformed Church, is a Grade II* listed building; the present building dates back to 1841 and was re-modelled by Owen Morris Roberts and is considered to be one of the finest chapel interiors in Wales. After the Reformation, some Breconshire families such as the Havards, the Gunters and the Powells persisted with Catholicism despite its suppression. In the 18th Century a Catholic Mass house in Watergate was active, Rev John Williams was the local Catholic priest from 1788 to 1815; the Watergate house was sold in 1805, becoming the current Watergate Baptist Chapel, property purchased as the priest's residence and a chapel between Wheat Street and the current St Michael Street, including the “Three Cocks Inn”.
The normal round of bishop's visitations and confirmations resumed in the 1830s. In 1832 most civil liberties were restored to Catholics and they became able to practise their faith more openly. A simple Gothic Church, dedicated to St Michael and designed by Charles Hansom, was built in 1851 at a cost of £1,000; the east end of town has two military establishments: Dering Lines, home to the Infantry Battle School, where infantry officers and Other Ranks are trained, The Barracks, home to 160th Brigade. Gurkha Company is based here. 9 miles to the west of Brecon is Sennybridge Training Area, an important training facility for the British Army. The west end of Brecon has a small industrial area, recent years have seen the cattle market moved from the centre of the town to this area, with markets held several times a week. Brecon has primary schools, with a secondary school and further education college on the northern edge of the town; the town is home to Christ College, founded in 1541. Brecon is located near where the east-west A40 (Monmouth-Carmarth
St Mabyn
St Mabyn is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated three miles east of Wadebridge; the parish includes a hamlet called Longstone to the east and many small manor houses, including Tregarden, Helligan Barton and Colquite, all built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The area of the parish is 4,101 acres; the parish is traditionally named after Saint Mabyn or Mabena, said to have been one of the 24 children of Brychan, a Welsh saint and King of Brycheiniog in the 5th century. Sabine Baring-Gould however suggests that the true founder of St Mabyn's Church was the male Welsh saint Mabon, the attribution to a female Mabyn came about after the true history had been lost. Davies Gilbert asserts that the name derives from the Cornish compound word Mab-in, meaning'son'; the first recorded mention of the village was in 1234 when it was spelt Sancto Malbano, The ma… prefix can mean ‘place’. The population in 2001 was 560 persons the same as in 1811, having declined from 595 in 1991.
Population in 2011 was 628. In 2013 the proportion of dwellings that were second homes or holiday accommodation was 10.1% The village is centred on the Grade I listed 15th century St Mabyn Parish Church. Village amenities include a well stocked independent village store and post office, a public house, a village hall, a primary school, St Mabyn Church of England Primary School, a pre-school, a scout group, a garden club, a Young Farmers' group. There is a King George's Field in memorial to a village green; the village is surrounded by undulating farmland. The Allen valley to the north west contains a number of Cornish Nature Conservation Sites. Land to the south-east is designated as an open area of local significance. Four trees in the village are subject to preservation orders; the village relies on septic tank drainage. There was post-war development of local authority housing along Wadebridge Road. In the 1980s private housing schemes at Mabena Close and Meadow Court were completed and there was further ribbon development growth along Station Road.
A residential development Greenwix Parc, comprising thirty five dwellings including 12 affordable units was completed by Midas Homes in 2011. The major economic activity in the parish is agriculture and the parish has several large farms. Most agriculture centres on dairying, with arable crops such as potato and rape and some raising of sheep. James Mutton of Burlerrow Farm was the first farmer in Cornwall to receive a grant from the England Rural Development Programme this enabled him to process Miscanthus giganteus, grown on his 750-acre farm and around the village, the crop is converted into livestock bedding; the farm generates its own electricity with an Endurance 50 kW wind turbine. Andrew and Sally Kellow keep a large dairy herd at Treveglos Farm. Tom Bray produces around 26,000 litres of traditional farm cider a year at Haywood Farm, where he has propagated 5,000 apple trees. In 2018 with the village shop proposing to close, a community shop opened on the site of the old school dinner hut a petrol station.
The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles. The arcades each comprise seven four-centred arches of granite, supported on monolith granite pillars with sculptured capitals of St Stephens porcelain stone. There is a south porch, a north door, priest's door; the tower has three stages. It has a parapet with pinnacles; the earliest recorded Priest-in-charge was Roger de Warlegan in 1267. Canon David John Elkington is the present incumbent; the earliest signs of habitation are at the Iron Age hill fort of Castle Killibury. Radiocarbon dating gives a date of occupation between 400 and 100 BC. An archaeological excavation at Chapelfields in 2016 uncovered evidence of two domestic Romano British enclosures, finds included a rare copper alloy brooch, Samian pottery dated AD 150-230 and a slate game piece. Arthur Langdon records four Cornish crosses in the parish: one in the churchyard and others at Colquite, Cross Hill and Penwine; the parish was part of the ancient hundred of Triggshire. In the Domesday book of 1086 this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Treu-es-coit.
Trethevey in St Mabyn parish was a manor recorded in the Domesday Book as Tewardevi. Both manors were held by Richard from Count of Mortain. Trevisquite had land for 25 households, a mill, 20 acres of woodland and 50 of pasture. Trethevey had land only for 3 households and 30 acres of pasture; the St Mabyn Trethevey has the meaning "manorial centre on the river Dewey" unlike other Cornish places called Trethevy. The inquisition of the bishops of Lincoln and Winchester in 1294 gave the Cornish benefice "Ecclesia de Maben in decanatu de Trig Minorshire" a rateable value of £8. In Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's inquisition of 1521 it is rated at £36. Sir Richard Serjeaux of Colquite in St Mabyn became High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1389. Below Colquite House is the ruin of a manor house of the late 15th century which may have been a first-floor hall house; the Long Sentry field south east of the church, has been identified as the possible location of the most northerly Plain-an-gwarry or playing place a Cornish Medieval amphitheatre it is mentioned in a church terrier of 1613 and 1679.
Grade II listed Dinham's Bridge, built in the early 19th century crosses over the River Allan on the parish boundary with St Kew parish. A United Methodist Free Church chapel was built wit
Uí Liatháin
The Uí Liatháin were an early kingdom of Munster in southern Ireland. They belonged the same kindred as the Uí Fidgenti, the two are considered together in the earliest sources, for example The Expulsion of the Déisi; the two have been given various origins among both the early or proto-Eóganachta and among the Érainn or Dáirine by different scholars working in a number of traditions, with no agreement reached or appearing reachable. It is possible that they were the product of a combination of lineages from both these royal kindreds, or alternatively of another origin entirely. Eochu Liathán, son of Dáire Cerbba, is the eponymous ancestor of the Uí Liatháin; the small village of Castlelyons in East County Cork preserves the name of one of their last royal seats in the High Middle Ages. The two most powerful septs of the Uí Liatháin were the Uí Thassaig. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the Uí Meic Caille gave their name to the barony of Imokilly; the Uí Liatháin are known from both Irish and British sources the Sanas Cormaic and Historia Brittonum, to have had colonies in Wales and Cornwall.
According to the Historia Brittonum they were driven out of North Wales by his sons. Alongside the Uí Liatháin in this region of Britain were a significant force of the so-called Déisi, whose story is told in the famous Expulsion of the Déisi mentioned above, as well as a smaller population of the Laigin. Neither are connected to the Uí Liatháin, or connected to each other, in any of the Irish sources, but collaboration can not be ruled out in matters relating to trade, including the slave trade; the Déisi Muman lived adjacent to them in the neighbouring County Waterford and the Laigin could be found not much farther east in the Kingdom of Leinster. The Uí Liatháin can, however, be associated with their apparent relation Crimthann mac Fidaig, the legendary King of Munster and dominant High King of Ireland of the 4th century, they are mentioned not only in the same passage in the Sanas Cormaic, but are close relations in all the earliest genealogical manuscripts. In a 1926 paper, Eoin MacNeill discusses the movements of the Uí Liatháin at considerable length, arguing their leadership in the South Irish conquests and founding of the dynasty of Brycheiniog, figures in the Welsh genealogies matching Uí Liatháin dynasts in the Irish genealogies.
He argues any possible settlement of the Déisi would have been subordinate until the ousting of the Uí Liatháin by the sons of Cunedda. The founder of Brycheiniog, Brychan, is in all probability the early dynast Macc Brocc, while the name Braccan occurs early in the pedigrees of the Uí Fidgenti and Uí Dedaid, close kindred of the Uí Liatháin. MacNeill further associates this with the sovereignty in Ireland and conquests in Britain of their cousin germane, the monarch Crimthann mac Fidaig. Bressal mac Ailello Thassaig was an early king of Munster according to one source, his sister Angias was the queen of Lóegaire mac Néill, High King of Ireland, mother of Lugaid mac Lóegairi, who became High King himself despite the initial wishes of Saint Patrick, thanks to Angias' beseeching the saint. She and Bressal were children of son of Eochu Liathán. Ruithchern, daughter of the King of Iarmuman, Áed Bennán mac Crimthainn, sister of Mór Muman, was taken captive by the Uí Liatháin and forced to herd sheep.
At the Battle of Carn Conaill, the Uí Liatháin are listed among the Munster allies of Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, a mention dismissed by Byrne, but discussed at length by Seán Ó Coileáin, who relates it to the cycle of Mór Muman and Ruithchern. Both the mother and celebrated wife, Caillech, of the infamous Cathal mac Finguine, King of Munster and King of Tara, were from the Uí Liatháin. A substantial part of the defunct kingdom was granted to the De Barry family by John of England in 1206, although the Uí Meic Tire persisted in a southern outpost for a few decades following. Based on Rawlinson B 502 and the Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii Dáire Cerbba / Maine Munchaín | |___________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | Fidach Fiachu Fidgenid Eochu Liathán Uí Duach Argetrois Uí Dedaid | | |__________________________ |___________________________ | | | | | | Crimthann mac Fidaig Mongfind = Eochaid Mugmedón = Cairenn Ailill Tassach | | | | | | Connachta Niall Noígíallach | | ___________| | | | Lóegaire mac Néill = Angias Bressal mac Ailello | |
_Eglwys_Aberhonddu_(Brecon,_Wales)_02.jpg)