The Magic of the Moor-Peterstone Augustinian Church-Petra Petri

The Names- Welsh Latin and Saxon

Ths Church was once the Monastery of St Arthfael and Augustinian Cell (Petra Petri-Llanbedr Gwynllŵg-Holy Place of Peter (Pedr) in Wentloog.),Petra Petri as it is also called in papal records in Rome means 'the Rock or Stone of Peter-Peter Stone' asChrist said to Peter:'Upon this rock I will build my church!'.

The Rule of St Augustine of Hippo in Monmouthshire

I mention Peterstone, as it became Augustinian in the early days after Wentloog was conquered by the Normans. Later it proved-although it serve for a hundred years or so as an Augustinian Priory of Bristol Abbey, when the plan became unfeasible, as not enough financial supportwas i the deal from the Lord of the Manor, there was another planto found a purpose built monastery at St Peter's in Rhymny which also failed, leaving St Peter in the Moor as a small church served by monks, one of severa in the area.

Robert de la Haye and Wentloog

When Robert Fitzhamon came to divide up the lands of South East Wales, one of his manor lords, Robert de la Haye received the cantref of Gwynllwg as his share, to be held by the service of four knight’s fees. It was Robert de la Haye who built the Motte and bailey Castle on Stow Hill, called then Stow Castle, just next to Gwynlliw’s Church of the Virgin Mary. Bruce Copplestone Crowe believes this may have been built by William Rufus in 1075. Robert’s influence extended throughout Wentloog or Gwynllwg. Robert took pains to reform on more sound and orderly lines the canonically sound (in Norman eyes)Welsh church, and first of all gave St Woolos, Gwynlliw’s Celtic monastery to the monks of St Peter’s in Gloucester. William II (Rufus) had already given the house to St Peter’s Abbey in Gloucester.

Benedictine Monks of Gloucester at St Woolos

It was a monk of Gloucester Cathedral who collated and made records of the life of Gwynlliw and his legends, and that of his family. The church had been acquired by Rufus in 1075.He also gave other churches and properties for his beautiful abbey of Tewkesbury. Robert's two largest grants were however to two Somerset houses one already an abbey.

Monatacute was a daughter house of the now Clunaic house of Glastonbury Abbey and to this Abbey the churches at Coedkernew, Marshfield and St Bride’s Wentloog were given. His gifts to Somerset houses were perhaps to curry favour with the Count of Mortain, whose lands were in the west Country. Clunaic Montacute had also been founded by Robert de la Haye. Bassaleg had actually also been the clas Church of St Gwladys,Gwynlliw’s wife, but as we have already learned it was given to the Clunaic monks of Glastonbury, who were a much stricter order of monks than the more usual Benedictines.Malpas was given to Montacute. Robert and Gundreda Fitzhamon were more than generous with their largesse, as was their devout daughter Mabel, commemorated at nearby house called Cafn Mably, where she lived sometimes.

Little Holland

The boundaries of Bassaleg priory therefore went right through the Moor (Wentloog level-Marshfield) along the line of the Broadway Rhyn-which used to be called ‘Dufeles’ by the Welsh. The village of Peterstone with its church of St Peter in the Moor lies on the Wentloog Levels halfway between Newport and Cardiff on the coast road stretching from St Brides to Rumney. The area is known as 'Little Holland', because of its many ‘rhyns’ or small ditches and flatness. These places are mentioned in the charters of Bassaleg priory.See the Broadway ditch above.

The Original Dedication of the whole 'llan' church and monastic buildings-now on the sites of the houses round the church, was to Gwentian Prince and Saint Arthfael.

The Church is called Petra Petri or (Peter Rock) or Peterstone and even St Peter in the Moor in papal records and others in Mediaeval times. Whilst Peter was one of the greatest of the saints, it was originally –there in the middle of the moor- an island of the Old Welsh monks, probably dedicated to St Armagillus, and a chapel of St Armagillus was attached to the old church and destroyed during the Reformation. The settlement would have been prepared with prayer and fasting in the usual way and had a wall around it , separating the world from heaven.

Bruce Copplestone Crow guesses Armagillus is actually St Arthmael or St Arthfael, whose hermits pushed into the Augustinian Order in Norman times, because the origins of early Welsh monasticism were also with St Anthony of the desert and St Augustine. This chapel would have not been in St John’s Church, Rhymney, which Robert de la Haye was thinking of considering the founding as an Augustinian monastery. It is more likely he thinks that St Arthmael’s monastery became St Peter’s and blossomed to become the amazing ‘Cathedral of the Moor ‘ of gothic architecture, which the preset ownersare taking care to preserve. It was always known to have been , like St Kynemark’s (St Cynfarch’s near Chepstow) in existence perhaps even from the sixth century, the era of David and the saints.

Identity of the King-Saint

Bruce Copplestone Crowe says Bartrum, an expert on the period has said it was a name used by three historical kings or princes of Glwyssing and Gwent in the eight to tenth centuries. As Artmali or Arthmael it occurs as the name of laymen and religious and priests on ninth and eleventh century inscribed stones at Llantwit Major and Ogmore in Glamorgan and in the twelfth century, the Life of St Cadoc (Vita Sancti Cadoci) as the name of a king (BCC thinks probably fictitious) who ruled the lands by the river Neath (Nedd) in Glamorgan in the sixth century.

It was therefore a name which was in common use in South east Wales from the sixth to the twelfth centuries. The question is, which of these Kings was the saint? We have already noted how so many of the ancient saints came from the royal houses of the three holiest families of Wales, especially Brychan Brycheiniog who gave his name to Brecon. The royal houses had the means to fund monasteries, their servants and friends joining them in these monasteries and accompanying them on their travels usually between Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Britanny.

BCC goes further by distilling several mediaeval lives of the saints, picking out the common characteristics. That he existed is not in doubt, since he has three churches dedicated to him in Brittany. BCC gives us these ideas and believes he was a native of the cantref of Penychen who studied in an unnamed monastery in South East Wales. The main theological colleges were at Caerwent , or possibly at Caerleon, where St Dyfrig had revived the ancient Roman school or college.

Mamhilad may also have been a possibility, as it is where St Cadoc’s body was taken to escape from marauding Saxons and the abbot of that college and monastery was called Caroncinalis . He then left for Brittanny (Armorica) and founded a monastery at St Armel de Boschaux , a few miles south of Rennes of which he became an abbot. He was a contemporary of St Childebert of Paris (511-558). He was not credited with any churches in Wales, but perhaps with Melanus (Mellon) also being active in France before returning to Wales .

Saint Melanus, St Mellons, Saint Malo (Same Person!) St Mellons (of St Malo)

probably returned home with news of Arthmael’s ministry and Christian actions. He was also celebrated in Cornwall , where he had a church dedicated to him at Stratton near Bude and a Church at St Erme, near Truro as well as the two others in Britanny. Saxon and Norman settlers may have changed the name of the little monastery to St Peter –also venerated in Wales (as in Llan Pedr-Lampeter)and other places, but among the native Welsh, clearly Arthmael never lost his popularity and the name persisted at Peterstone for another four hundred years in the name of St Armagillus. It probably still looks very much like it does today, but with smaller and less houses. With what sadness these monks were moved out of their home to St John’s in Rhymney nearer Robert’s castle and finally te native welsh monks pushed out to a cold stone monastery at Flatholme , where Gildas was active at one time in his hermitage in Ynys Echni, one of the holy islands of Wales.

Bristol Abbey

Between 1148 and 1157, the unreformed clas (royal Celtic) church of St Arthfael was given by William of Gloucester to the Augustinian Canons of Bristol Abbey. It may have been his desire to offer it as part of a priory-cell or even grange of the Abbey at St John’s Church and remove them from their remote cell on the margin between the sea and the Rhymney Moor, but it the church was never endowed as an Augustinian Priory. Mabel had been in talks with the Abbot of Bristol about setting up the new priory as her father has set up Bassaleg from Glastonbury (Ynys Witrin) and the Clunaics of Montacute.The donations to Clunaics (strict observance Benedictines) is interesting because Cluny was not in Normandy.These dedications are a little later. The monastery of St Arthfael,(Llanarthfael?-perhaps even Llanarth may have been named for him?) as it must have been called was mentioned by the Earl’s Father, Robert at the time when he had Gwenllwg under his hand, between 1120 and his death in 1147. During that time he gave to Mabel his wife land ‘near the monastery of St Peter on the Moor’. After Earl Robert’s death but before her own in 1157,and while Gwynllwg was in her hands and was part of her dowry. Mabel gave this to the Augustinian Church of St John the Baptist at Rhymney as part of the process whereby she and her son hoped to found a monastery there. Here is the text of the charter, for which I am very grateful for BCC’s translation:

‘Mabel, Countess of Gloucester,( Robert’s Fitzhamon’s daughter) to William Fitzstephen the Constable of Newport) and her officials of Gwenllwg (Gunlion)and all the barons, men and friends, Welsh, French and English,and also her Welshmen, greetings. Know that my lord Robert Earl of Gloucester gave me sixty acres of free land in the March of Rhymney near the monastery of St Peter on the Moor(iuxta monasterium sancti petri de Mora) and the wood towards the north, that Gilbert, priest of Rhymney held of me in the time of the said Earl, my lord, and that I, for the good of the soul of my Lord, Robert and of Robert Fitzhamon, my father and for the good of myself and our children grant and concede to the Church of St John in Rhymney, the said sixty acres of land in free alms, my son, William , Earl of Gloucester, conceding the same free of all earthly exactions……’

Morgan and Ioworth, leaders of the Welsh upland made grants to the proposed St John’s Church monastery site round about the same time as this belonged to the Cathedral

Rumney was formerly called Llanrhymney ,Romney or Rompney and the river on which it stands is the Rhymney, which shares its name with the town at the top of the valley, but there are other variations. Remni, Remne and Rempney all appear in old documents and maps as far back as 1100. St John’s itself, therefore could also have been an ancient church and monastery, but being closer to the castle, easier to defend from the Welsh, who continued to try to drive out the English and Normans until one of their own Henry VIII of the Welsh Tudor line, tried to extinguish the identity of Wales and trashed the ancient religion of the people.

Broadway Ditch and the rhyns on the Moor

All the studies suggest a connection with water, a boundary stream or marshes, which , of course, would be most appropriate, as the river used to form the boundary between Gwent and Morganwwg (Glamorgan) and Rumney(Rhymney) includes the moors .Like most of the settlements on the Wentloog Level it lies on land reclaimed from the Bristol Channel. Peterstone itself lies right against the sea wall. Earl Williams own endowment for the proposed priory included 100 acres of land in Cilbwr , in his lordship of Glamorgan on the other side of the Rhymney, lands at Penarth in Glamorgan , the church of St Mellons in Wentloog and the Island of Flatholm (Ynys Echni). Regarding this island of Ynys Echni, the Earl had previously given to the hermits of SS Michael , Cadoc and Dolfino lands at Llandough near Penarth .

Norman 'Ethnic Cleansing' of St Arthfael'a monks

When the plans did not come to fruition with St Johns (probably because Bristol Abbey did not think it well enough provided for) all it’s churches and lands were given to the Augustinian monks of Flatholm. These monks may have been the former hermits, of Peterstone, now become Augustinian Canons.’ If all these grants relate to a proposed priory cell of the proposed Abbey at Rhymney,they must date from after the inductions of the first canons of Bristol on 11 April 1148 and before the death of the Countess Mabel in 1157. It actually seemed to be a case of ethnic cleansing, the hermits of Michael Cadoc and Dolfino pushed out to Flat Holm, as well as the hermits of St Arthmael’s monastery. Peterstone was then built in glorious architechture and perhaps became a parish church in a prosperous farming area, being served by the Augustinians of Bristol, whose job it was.

Monastery land is let out to two burgesses in Bristol

St Peter on the Moor had become the property of Bristol Abbey, the buildings of the clas old Welsh monastery became the centre for the abbey’s manor of Peterstone. In 1542, the Cathedral Valor of Bristol described its lands in Wentloog as ‘the manor of Peterstone and the Rectory, which extends into Peterstone, Marshfield, St Mellons and Rhymney in Wentloog, together with rectory of the lordship of Wentloog.’ The tithes of these churches were paid to Bristol Abbey, who administrated the area, the monks probably staying in accommodation in the village in a Conventual setting, using the Church for its worship.We know that the lands of the old order were leased to two burgesses of Bristol, who probably administrated and oversaw the lands for the monks.

Bruce Copplestone Crowe goes on to say that eleven years prior to this, the abbey had leased to two burgesses of Bristol the chapel and manor of St Peter on the Moor with 52 acres of demesne lands and two granges, one at Marshfield and the other at St Mellons and with the directory of Rumney in the Lordship of Wentloog. This is confirmed in the following papal registers

( 'Lateran Regesta 85: 1400-1401', Calendar of Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 5: 1398-1404 (1904), pp. 345-363.):The Pope confirmed the endowment of the Augustinian Abbey of Bristol of many churches, including those of Newport (Austin Friars) as they had proved possession for a great many years.

those of Rumeney with its chapel of St. Peter de More, St. Melan de Porttaske, and Pennart,(Penarth) with the chapel of Lavermarke(Lavernock) in that of Llandaff. For all the above, the archbishop states that they have proved possession for 40, 50, 60 years and more and even from time immemorial, and that they have possessed for some time, as appropriated, the church of Meresfeld (Marshfield). The pope further grants that in future they need not exhibit, by way of proof, other than the archbishop's letters. Ad fut. rei mem. Is que pro statu. (De mandato.) In 1536, St Peter on the Moor became a parish church, but with the subsequent deprivation of the church lands, (the Great Plague and the enclosures, meant a subsequent shrinking in of the village, which still exists.

The Church has been sold as it was not used enough

Sadly, in recent times, the small congregation could not pay to save such a large and beautiful church.To pay for the maintenance of one of the most splendid Early English style churches to have been built in Wales . The recently published “Gwent” volume of the Buildings of Wales sees John Newman enthuse over this building "indeed the noblest and most beautiful Perpendicular churches in the whole county", a "queen" among churches by the Severn Estuary. He illustrates the exterior and interior in the plates.This priceless piece of architecture has been sold and made into a private home in 2002 and it has been lovingly conserved even as a Grade I listed building.This was unquestionably a good way to save the building and landscape for posterity. It is better if small congregations cannot save the buildings not to let it fall into ruin or disappear as St Kynemark’s has done.Leastways I met the owner at the gate, a most pleasant lady to told me everything inside was still intact, and it is good that the new owners take such care oftheir beautiful surroundings ad treasure it.Hopefully, at some stage, I might be allowed in to see , but there has been also understandibly bad feeling about the sale and she was a bit wary of letting me in. The told me that the font was beautiful.

The 'Tsunami ' of 1606

The lovely Norman church of St Peter, often referred to as the 'Cathedral of the Moors', bears a floodmark of 1606, when many lives of inhabitants and livestock were lost. It is recorded that over 1,000 people drowned and were buried in a communal grave in Rumney, then called Rompney or Llanrhymney. Long and hard hours were toiled on the soil for the next 20 years to bring the land into production again. There have been several such deluges recorded, one in the time of Gwylliw, written by the monk of Gloucester,(late 5th, early 6th century) and another in mediaeval times.
The Bells of Saint Peter after the ‘Reformation’

The Augustinian Church of St Peter in the Moor had a Western tower and a ring of eight bells. These bells were installed when the Church was an Anglican church.As far as I know, these are still in the tower and a great deal of conservation work to do.The monastery church became a parish church in Protestant times and its beautiul furnishings stripped out, neverthe less it is one of the most beautiful church buildings. The small sculpture in the tower devoted to Mary Mother of God (above) is a case in point-absolutely charming, but very high up in the tower

New Appeal for missing Catholic child Madeleine McCann

http://www.youtube.com/ceop You need to c and p this as links never work on this blog.
It is available in most European languages and Arabic. Can you click on the one you wish to use.......

http://www.findmadeleine.com/ This is Madeleine's web site

Please paste this into your browser for the latest video from the Leicestershire police about Madeleine McCann. The ceop website also gives details about other missing children and the attempts made to find them. It is good that Madeleine's case seeks to highlight this menace.There were cases before the iron curtain coming down, of wealthy people kidnapping babies and toddlers from eastern countries and raising them as their own. This is cruel and heartbreaking for the parents. In the case of Madeleine's parents, they have really been through the mill and are sustained with fortitude by their faith and the love of the people around them.

That child, and the nine months that Kate had her in her womb are precious memories of a child snatched by someone who had no right to take her away from loving parents and plunge her into an artificial life. At some stage she has to be found-her DNA as belonging to her parents, will be identified and those are the parents who bore her, nurtured her and cared for her, who endured sleepless nights while she cried.Notwithstanding criticism from people who said she should not be left alone, with which I agree, I think sometimes we forget there are times when we have all left children for a few minutes-to answer the door or take a phone call for example-they were the people who presented her to the church for baptism and whose child she is in the sight of God. The people who know where she is-on your conscience-tell the parents, her true parents. Od course those who have her now will love her too, but what they have done is evil-to remove the child from her parents. If you are frightened, arrange to leave your child with your local catholic church. Retribution is not sop much an issue as returning Madeleine to her real parents. the Catholic church's teaching, I believe, is that children should have the right to be brought up by their blood mother and father, the people who made her, in love.

By that very fact, you must send Madeleine back and seek help and consolation and confession for what you did. It is evil and wrong to do this. It has completely robbed two young children for growing up with their complete family and Madeleine's true family will never give up on her. Please do the right thing, which is of God and give her back. Taking a child from her true family is not of God-is of someone else. If you are a family member of the family who have Madeleine, a family of a school friend, a friend or aquaintance-someone who has recently moved into your vicinity or neighbourhood with a six year old child who speaks good English, contact Madeleine's website -even anonymously and tell them where she is, precisely if you can-or suspect. The police believe she is in Portugal and the video gives more details. This could also apply to France or to any European country.

Look at your neigbour's six year old child. Does she have the fleck in the eye? Does she have a knowledge of English, could she be Madeleine Mccann?

LET'S CELEBRATE - ALL HALLOWS (SAINTS) DAY!!

Jesus and the Angels-devotional picture
Revelations image



This whole passage of Rev 4 is interesting and inspirational.And then the glorious passage in Rev 5

Then I sw in the middle of the throne with its four living creatures and the circle of the elders,a lamb standing that seemed to have been sacrificed; it had seven horns and seven eyeswhich e the seven spirits that God has sent out over all the whole world. The Lamb (Jesus) came forward to take the scroll from the righthand of the One sitting onthe Throne, and when he took it, the four living creatures prostrated themselves before him and with him the twenty four elders.

Each one of them was holding a harp and HAD A GOLDEN BOWL FULL OF INCENSE

WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS. They sang a new hymn:

You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals
Because you were sacrificed and with your blood
You bought people for God
Of every race, language, people and nation
And made them a line of kings and priests for God
to rule the world.

In my vision, I saw an immense number of angels gathered around the throne, the living creatures and the elders ; there were ten thousand times ten thousands of them and thousands upon thousands loudly chanting


'Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed
To receive power, and wisdom strength
Honour, glory and blessing.'

Then I heard all the living things in creation-evrything that lives in heaven, and the earth and under the earth and in the sea crying:

'To the One seated on the throne and to the Lord
be all Praise, Honour, Glory and Power
Forever and ever!'.

St Kynemark's, (Cynfarch's) at Chepstow Part II

Below is a very rough sketch of St Kynemark's minus the church, and we have no idea of its location. It was stone built, rendered and limewashed, the building on the right being larger and 15th century built. The smaller building may be an early building follwing te design of a mud and wattles building or even wooden building-and so may the church have been, if there was not such a lot of stone around from the quarries of the Forest of Dean. The plan is a somewhat simplified one from the one prepared by LAS Butler, and the South Range seems to have been further away than I have shown it.

_______________________________________________


Yesterday we learned that the location of this priory (of which there are now few signs) has been excavated and a paper by L.A.S Butler published. What was puzzling, when the excavations happened was that the Church of St John the Baptist are not part of the priory, which was a small one, and possibly of the scale of the little Penmon Priory and that of the church at Peterstone. The monastery seems to have been simple in design, although pieces of decoration on the interior of the stone walls , were colour washed in pink and then in white, with imitation stone pattern picked out in red lines and a trailing leaf patterns added in green rock floors had been made smooth by layers of sand and mixed with soil and covered with rushes.In the diagram above, it is important to realise there were more buildings to the south and all was enclosed in a boundary wall, which may have been originally a circular shape, adapted to a more rectangular shape in Norman times.
St Kynemarks lies nest to the ridge at Crossway Green one mile north of the church on the road to Tintern and Monmouth.Post Mediaeval spelling was Kinmark or Kingsmark.

Destruction of the Llandaff Records

The religious house at St Kynemarks may originally have been ancient and royal, but was quite small in size and its possessions were all local, so the house is not mentioned much in the records. The Mediaeval books were destroyed when Llandaff was sacked and ruined by Owain Glyn Dwr and again by robbers and brigands from Bristol. The records of many houses literally disappeared during these times. However the Book of Llandaff does contain references to Arthrwys, King of Gwent, who gave the Church of St Cynfarch to the see of Llandaff early in the seventh century. The church of St Arvans in a tenth century gift also came to Llandaff in a papal Bull of 1128-the year of the canonisation of St David of Wales by Pope Calixtus II .Porthcaseg Church, another local church and the two other churches were also confirmed to the see of Llandaff in this Bull of Pope Honorius II but may have just confirmed what was Llandaff’s . The Church of St John Baptist seems to have disappeared.

St Cynfarch, disciple of Dyfrig/Dubricius giving Llandaff its claim

We know it existed four or five centuries before Chepstow Priory was built by the Normans, and is the church to which the inhabitants of Chepstow would have resorted. The first mention of it is when Arthrwys ,King of Gwent granted this church-ecclesiam cynfarchi with others to Comereg one of the assistant bishops to Teilo in the sixth century. I was also one of those churches confirmed by Pope Honorious II to Bishop Urban (1108-1133) and the see of Llandaff, where it is described as Villa Lanncinnmarch cum Prato.

Augustinian Canons fomed from Celtic 'Llans'

The Augustinian Priory was founded here in the eleventh century, when the priory was probably reorganised from a former Welsh Celtic style llan. I have already shown why the Celtic foundations would have chosen the Augustinian charism after the style of Anthony of the Desert. In the Norwich Valuation the Church of St Kennemarco is described as a Chapter Property and assessed by one mark. In the mid thirteenth century Butler says that the church at Striguil(Chepstow) is included and also the chapels of Porthcaseg and St Arvans, both dependent chapels served by St Kinmark’s;the omission of St Kinmark’s implies it still belonged to Llandaff.

The Wentwood Dispte over Hay, House and Fire-bote (-boot)

Throughout the Middle Ages Llandaff kept an interest in St Kynemarks . In 1270 St Kynemark is presented in the survey of Wentwood –that the Prior and monks of St Kynemarks ought to have Hay and House boot in Wentwood. The Prior of Tintern, of Chepstow and St Kynemarks all attended the court to dispute the hay and house bote.Others present were Robert son of Pagan of Llanfair Uchoed, William Blewitt (who ‘ought to have hay and house bote in Wentwood by right of conquest’,William Denford de Cricke,Richard de Moor and Bartholomew de Moor , Knight,Robert de Moor, John Martyll Mathew Deband of Portskewett, William de St Maure of the manor at Penhow, and manyothers. Wentwood, called in Welsh Coed Gwent, was the largest forest in the vicinity and was much larger than it is today, extending to Chepstow Park. This is borne out by occasional ‘assarts’ that is references to land reclaimed from woodland. The lords of all the manors holding under the lordship of Chepstow had rights in Wentwood to cut timber to build houses called ‘house boot’, hay boot was the right to cut brushwood (called tinnet nowadays) for making fences; and though not mentioned in the lists of lords of the manors , fireboot was the right to cut certain woods for fuel’.The owners of the various rights to the boots kept these until about 1630.

Inquest into the Death of Roger Bigod

At the inquest into the death of Roger Bigod , Earl of Norfolk and Lord of Striguil in 1306, the Prior of St Kinmark’s is listed among the free tenants and pays rents on two tenements at Chepstow.

Prior William Hennyg of St Kynemark in court to prove a title

Butler also lists the 1415 Court Case, where Father William Hennyng, Prior of St Kynemarks , produced as a title to his land which the priory held in the lordship , a grant held by an earlier lord Gilbert Marshall, Earl of Pembroke (1234-1241)the fact that the document which was roduced was a confirmation and not the original deed could, says Butler imply that the priory was of considerable antiquity, possibly even of Celtic origin.

Augustinian Devotion to St John Baptist

In 1355 it appeared as St John the Baptist Church, no surprise because St John Baptist was himself a hermit and a favourite saint of the Augustinians. On 13th of August 1355 . Richard de Tuddenham, a canon who for some nefarious reason was in monastic prison cell and broke out and fled. Pope Bonifcace IX gave a mandate for him to reconcile to his Order. In fact he was often incarcerated and often escaped, but clearly had something about him that they kept taking him back.

By 1603, however St Kynemark’s is no longer mentioned but there is a record of a Chepstow parish register records the baptism of Eleanor, daughter of Walter Hutton at St Kynemark;s in 1642, so the church was still in use at this time. The location of the land of St Kynemark’s are no longer clear. Some of them belonged to William Lewis of St Pierre (‘caires in St Kynemark’, St Lawrence in Chepstow held of the Earl of Wigorn and the Bishop of Llandaff) So it seems Llandaff still had kept some of the lands.

Crossgreen Farm stolen by Roundheads in 1648

In 1648 it seems that Cross green Farm was among the posessions of Llandaff stolen by parliament. This farm is outside the present parish of St Kynemarks and was in St Arvan’s parish. As for the lack of a church on the site, what of the ancient tower in Piercefield Park? Bradney writes of the tower in the park :’A feature in the park is a tower now nearly a ruin of whose history no record remains. Parts of it are very ancient especially the doorway. Around are signs of buildings . From under the door there runs for about 20 yards an underground passageway along which a man could crawl and around are signs of buildings. It stands on the Roman Road about a mile from Crossway Green and is marked on the plan of piercefield by Archdeacon Coxe in 1801 as ‘Grove House’?Bradney:Hundred of Caldicot p 40. Question is as the model army wnt around destroying beautiful churches-did they also destroy the church of StJohn the Baptist and only leave the tower? Or what of St Lawrence's?

Pope Nicholas' Taxation 1291

Financially the Priory was assessed at £1 16s 1d from the assessment from Abergavenny Priory of the tenth or the total income of St Kynemark.. In Pope Nicholas’ taxation of 1291 the priory held land and estates in Langstone, Striguil/Chepstow, Stowere and St Kynemark to a total value of £7.2s 10d and also held the rectories of St Kynemarks, St Arvans and Porcasseg. This last assessment, says Butler, shows the small scale of the Abbey and number of monks was probably quite small.

Brother John ap Howell presented for Ordination at Hereford 1531, just before the Henrican Holocaust.

In 1531, John ap Howell was presented for ordination in the diocese of Hereford by the Prior of St John’s Monastery by St Kinmark and proceeds by way of acolyte and subdeacon to the order of priesthood.

Financial Difficulties

In 1492, the Prior could not pay the annual pension of 13/4d to the monastery of St Augustine, Bristol (seemingly the Mother House) and five years later they were still in arrears.The pension was supposed to net £46 over sixty years and the terminal date was in 1527-8. Possibly the payments would have started as larger payments in 1458.

The Lease of the Earls of Worcester

Butler also gives details of a lease of 1529, shortly before the seizure of the priories. Father John Pynnock, the Prior St Kynemark and the Convent of that place leased to William David ap Richarda cottage in Chepstow earlier rented by John Fyer and Maragaret his wife. The priory seal is attached to the leasewhich is dated in the Chapter House of the Priory.

After the seizure and destruction of most of the monasteries, most of their lands and possessions went to the Earls of Worcester. The Somerset family had been stewards of the two larger monasteries , but it is less likely that they bothered with St Kynemark’s. In fact they may well have remained there until they died, since the Earl of Worcester ‘s son was a Catholic , received recusant priests into his castle at Raglan and was generally well disposed towards clergy, although clergy in England were hunted more assiduously.

Willis Bund describes St Kynemark as Norbertine or Premontensian, but the Priory existed for three centuries and there are no records, and it may be that negotiations were underway to perhaps share the Priory with Norbertines.
However we know for certain that Tuddenham the apostate was an Augustinian Canon. Possibly the Priory was formed from the well established house of Roger de Bereceroles of Bristol or possibly Llanthony. Still there must have been some reason for the Catholic Encyclopaedia calling it Premontensian, but it is useless to speculate, although there may have been some sharing perhaps a younger order taking over from an ageing one. The documentary evidence is very slight because most of the records were destroyed at Llandaff and its holdings and rectories were not part of Herefordshire or Worcester or Bath and Wells. The only direct link there is ,is of the earls of Worcester being given the lease of 1529 ,which must have been part of the monastic deeds of the Earls of Worcester such as Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Priory and many of those were destroyed when during the Civil War, Raglan Castle itself was destroyed and burnt out. The Earls did possess St Arvans and St Kinmarks as seen in one of the few surviving deeds at Badminton MSS in the Tintern Court Rolls.

Difficulties with the site of the Priory

The exact location of the monastery and its compass has yet to be decided. It is not clear, whether the Priory of John the Baptist and the Church of St Kinmark were adjacent as appears to have been the case elsewhere, or whether the two buildings were apart. As the house was so small, it may even have been that a small chapel or oratory was housed in the East Range as so often the case in today’s Abbeys, so that the monks served their church as a parish church.Butler says ‘the elevated position is unusual for a monastery of early foundation , when compared with the secluded position of Llancarfan, Llantwit Major for example but would not be remarkable for a parish church. In 1840 an archaeologist called Nicholson stated that the stone walls around St Kynemark’s farm were a remnant of the priory, and David Williams in 1796 stated it was at the Turnpike on the road from Chepstow to Tintern. An excavation in 1962 and 1963 found the foundations of two buildings within the farmyard with their exis being North to South and a cemetery with at least 17 burials in rock cut graves. L.A.S Butler does say that far more work is to be done here. It seems the farmhouse itself may have served as the south range of the Abbey, only more research will tell, since the relationship between the bishopric and the Augustinian Priory needs to be understood more clearly, and with documentary evidence lacking only archaeology and the practices of the Augustinians can give us information.

Everyday Life

My drawing at the top (and I am no artist) is meant to show how it may have looked. We know it was stone built, possibly rendered and lime washed as was typical of the time. I have shown chickens being kept, bees, vegetables etc but no doubt they brought in other meats and had a farm close by where they could get milk and other things. There was a mill at Tintern and possibly even closer at Trellech , where they could buy in what they needed.

Fishing-Prior's Weir, Prior's Reach

The subsequent history of the priory seems to have been one of decay as locals robbed the stone. It is also clear from Mr Butler’s excavations even the stone from the foundations was taken, which has made life difficult and introduced more speculation. Finally, no doubt the Black Death in the 14th century made life a great deal harder, for the maintenance of the buildings and work in the fields. People could not pay tithes if they were ill or dead and as in so many places, perhaps the vocations dwindled as people made for the towns. There was also the fact that the Crown itself during the time of Henry VIII imposed always greater taxes on religious houses to deliberately bring them down. St Kynemark’s had valuable fishing rights on the Wye. Records of Lancaut Church show the name of the Prior’s Weir. A man described as the farmer of the Prior of St Kynemark’s weir who was involved in a tithe dispute was presumably holding the weir at Lancaut which with a weir-house was among the former possessions of St. Kynemark's Priory, in 1577; it was probably Liveoaks Troughs Weir which lies just below a stretch of the river known as ‘Prior's Reach.’

It is, however, important to remember and commemorate the work of prayer of the Augustinian Canons, who laboured there in their desert from the time of Dyfrig (Dubricius). A life spent in prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, Physical work, frugal meals, service to the Community as they served the people of Chepstow as priests of St Lawrence and St Kynemark. The Chepstow Priory Church in later times became a parish church even before the Reformation, but St Kynemark’s was a small fairly unimportant house, but a home for people who made a big difference to the people around them. The religious brothers, who even in the world today improve the quality for the people, helping their disputes and acting as Christ in our midst. Though not all of them were perfect, most devoted their whole lives to their vocation and the seventeen stone coffins no doubt contained their mortal remains.

The house was never worth much and seemed to be in financial trouble for its last 50 years, so not much was done with it, except to lease it out to local farms, when anything valuable had been sold off and yet there is othing recorded in the Monasticon, so the brothers obviously dd live simply and poorly, as they do today.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Augustinian Canons today

The spirit of St Augustine is alive and well and all over the world. It is the building which has vanished.

The spirituality of the Brothers at Llanthony,St Kynemark's and Peterstone can be seen in this novena by the Augustinian Bishop of Manila:

+In nomine Patris, filio et Spiritui sancto.

Dear Brothers,

With St. Augustine we say ,You have made us for Yourself O Lord, for you alone our God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

As we begin our novena to our Father St. Augustine we pray for the grace to make his spirit our own, on our journey towards our inner self. We reflect on who we are and where we are going as Augustinian Religious and devotees in the context of our time. Move by the spirit of Augustine’s restless pursuit for truth.

What motivates me to continue searching for God?

Having found Him, how do I make Him alive in my relations to people with whom I live?

If there is one thing that Augustinian emphasizes over and over again in treating of the search of God, it is that we must begin by going with ourselves. The keyword is WITHIN. There will find truth, light, joy in Christ Himself.

There we will be heard when we pray; there we will love and worship God. But while this within signifies the very depths of our being, this is only the first stage of the journey. Augustine urges us to keep moving on even to what is beyond ourselves, to the source of our inspiration and light to God Himself.

Augustine would tell us, “Do not go outside yourself, but turn back within. Truth dwells in the inner man; and if you find your nature given to frequent change, go beyond yourself. Move on, then to that source where the light of reason itself receives its light.. (End of the reading – Some moments of silence)

LITANY IN HONOUR OF SAINT AUGUSTINE


Lord, have mercy on Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us Christ have mercy on us God the Father of Heaven Have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the World Have mercy on us World God, the Holy Spirit Have mercy on us
Holy Trinity,One God
Have mercy on us
Mary,MotherofJesus
Pray for us Mary, Mother of Consolation Pray for us
Mary, Mother of Good Counsel Pray for us
St. Augustine, bright star of the Church Pray for us
St. Augustine, filled with zeal for God’s glory Pray for us
St. Augustine, dauntless defender of the truth Pray for us
St. Augustine, the triumph of divine grace Pray for us
St. Augustine, on fire with the love of God Pray for us
St. Augustine, so great and so humble Pray for us
St. Augustine, prince of bishops and doctors Pray for us
St. Augustine, father of monastic life. Pray for us
St. Augustine, holiest of the wise and wisest of the holy Pray for us


Pray for us St. Augustine, That may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

ALL: You have made for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. We ask you to bless our restlessness in our search for you will live in our lives, and in the events confronting us.

Finding you, may we be faithful to you God of history, faithful to Christ our Lord and Saviour, faithful to the Church and her teaching and faithful to our particular state of life, which we have chosen to serve you. This we ask of you loving Father, through Christ our Lord and through the intercession of Saint Augustine, our Father.
Amen.

ST CYNFARCH, St Kynemark's Priory, Chepstow and The Desert Fathers and Welsh ‘llans’

Here are pictures of St Antony of Egypt, one of the Desert Fathers and also of Penmon Priory-similar in size to St Kynemarks which is destroyed. Also some shards of stained glass showing St Cyngar and St Cynfarch at St Llanfair Cynfarch inClwyd (near Ruthin, North Wales)Tomorrow there is more detail about St Kynemark's priory from the scholarship of L.A.S.Butler of Leeds University. This is by way of introduction, exlaining the common origins of the Welsh 'Llan' monastic system and the 'Martyrdoms' and the original hermits -the desert fathers by St Anthony and various other Fathers of the Eastern Church who were the first to engage in the way of life of hermits. Tomorrow's post will consider what we know about St Kynemark's Priory near Chepstow.









_________________________________________________________________________________


"This is the truth, if a monk regards contempt a praise, poverty as riches, and hunger as a feast, he will never die." Blessed Macarios of the Desert

Cynfarch Oer, King of North of England and Welsh Saint

Cynfarch's (Oer) has a strange title which means 'the Dismal'. He was the son of Meirchion Gul, the King of Greater Rheged in the North of what is now England and, upon his father's death, inherited the Northern portion of his Kingdom. Cynfarch lost the South of the country to his brother Elidyr but soldiered on in what is now Scotland. About AD 550, King Senyllt of Galwyddel seems to have been expelled from Galloway and was forced to seek refuge on his island stronghold of Ynys Manaw (Isle of Man). King Cynfarch is the most likely aggressor, especially as a number of places in the region are associated with him. Susan Mayes, however, to his possible identity of a saint and poet and a softer side to his personality, and his conversion to Christianity and founding of his ‘desert’ or White Martyrdom at the lower side of Offa’s Dyke at the area we know as St Kynemarks. One mile north of Chepstow.

She discusses on her web page the ‘Canu Heledd’, the song of Heledd (you remember we discussed her and her settlement at Llanheledd near Pontypool) Llanhilleth. The pagan Anglo Saxon Mercians pillaged and ravaged the kingdom of Powys and destroyed King Cynddylan. Susan suggests for various reasons, the poet may have been Cynfarch.? Possibly Cynfarch had been educated in one of Dubricius’ monasteries, as were so many of the Welsh saints, and we know he was a disciple of Dubricius (known as Dyfrig). Like King Tewdrig he had to follow his calling as King and but may have passed on his Kingdom when his son Urien reached his maturity and had the youth and strength to defend his people, as Tewdrig had done with Meurig. Cynfarch could have then dedicated himself to his love of history and poetry in his later years.)
Susan writes

‘Highly skilled in the Welsh poetic tradition, fond of contrast and irony, a keen observer, compassionate, acknowledging women within his cultural limits, a man who loved Powys: who and what was the poet?

An educated man of his era was almost certainly a trained bard, a churchman or a member of the ruling elite. It may be that the Canu Heledd poet was of privileged rank, associated with a royal house of Powys in the ninth century and formally trained as a professional poet. It is not impossible that he was Cyngen's historian and the writer of the Elise's Pillar text, Cynfarch. ‘ (This Pillar and its poetry is to be found at Valle Crucis Abbey near Llangollen in North Wales.)

This is her website, but you will have to c and p

http://www.castlewales.com/canuhel.html

Ystafell Gyndylan ys tywyll heno Cynddylan's hall is dark tonight.
heb dan heb wely. without fire, without a bed.
wylaf wers. tawaf wedy. I will weep a while, be silent later.
Ystafell Gyndylan ys tywyll y nenn. Cynddylan's hall, dark its roof
gwedy gwen gyweithyd. after its fair company.
gwae ny wna da ae dyuyd. Alas not to do good as it comes.

The Welsh 'Martyrdoms' and the Desert Fathers

St Cynfarch’s ‘llan’ or religious settlement on the banks of the Wye, probably followed all the previous foundations of ‘llans’ which I have written about before (the preparation of the land, the fasting, the delineation of the wall in separating the earth from heaven within etc) and when Cynfarch’s son, Urien took over from him as monarch, the older King lived out his life in his special monastery in peace and tranquillity. If Susan Mayes hunch is correct, it might be that the Canu Heledd was written here. We learn that at some time, possibly as a child,but not certainly so, as he may have discovered a vocation late, he became a pupil of St Dubricius-perhaps at one of the saints many monasteries. The early Welsh (romanised Britons) designated the finding of their plot of land for their ‘desert island’ as a Martyrdom-giving their life to God. Red Martyrdom was literally giving their lives for Christ with God and Blue or Green Martyrdom was actually the life spent on that special site, dedicated to the service of God. King Cynfarch seems to have been proclaimed a saint at this very early time, possibly because of the wars against the Saxon Mercians
and then retiring to a life of holiness after a lifetime of battles, in early life as a soldier and young king and in later life, being forced to defend his kingdom.

The Desert Fathers,St Anthony and St Augustine

"Sit in thy cell and thy cell will teach thee all." Father Moses,

We have recently learned how the Augustinian Friars of Newport and elsewhere in Britain admired the Fathers of the desert and sought to copy their hermit existence. The ‘Desert Fathers’ were Hermits, Ascetics and Monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt, beginning around the third century. They were the first Christian hermits, who abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live as hermits. These original desert hermits were Christians fleeing the chaos and persecution of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century. They were men who did not believe in letting themselves be passively guided and ruled by a decadent state. Christians were often scapegoated during these times of unrest, and near the end of the century, the Diocletianic Persecution was more severe and systematic. In Egypt, refugee communities formed at the edges of population centres, -far enough away to be safe from Imperial scrutiny.

Fasting and Abstinence

In 313, when Christianity was made legal in Egypt by Diocletian's successor Constantine I, a trickle of individuals, many of them young men, continued to live in these marginal areas. The solitude of these places attracted them because the privations of the desert were a means of learning self-discipline. Such self-discipline was modelled after the examples of Jesus' fasting in the desert and of his cousin John the Baptist (himself a desert hermit). These individuals believed that desert life would teach them to eschew the things of this world and allow them to follow God's call in a more deliberate and individual way.

Thus, during the fourth century, the empty areas around Egyptian cities continued to attract others from the world over, wishing to live in solitude with a reputation for holiness and wisdom. In its early form, each hermit followed more or less an individual spiritual program, perhaps learning some basic practices from other monks, but developing them into their own unique (and sometimes highly idiosyncratic) practice. Later monks, notably St Anthony, developed a more regularized approach to desert life, and introduced some aspects of community living (especially common prayer and meals) that would eventually develop into monastic hermit style life Many individuals who spent part of their lives in the Egyptian desert went on to become important figures in the Church and society of the fourth and fifth century, among them Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, and John Cassian. Through the work of the John Cassian and Augustine of Hippo the spirituality of the desert fathers, emphasizing an ascent to God through periods of purgation and illumination that led to unity with the Divine, deeply affected the spirituality of the Western Church and the Eastern Church. For this reason, the writings and spirituality of the desert fathers are still of interest to many people today.

We can therefore see that both the Celtic Spirituality of the Martyrdoms and that of the desert fathers led by St Anthony (Athanasius) and others had their root in the same tradition. Losing themselves in the love and worship of God, becoming closer to him by separating themselves from a wicked world . In Welsh practice, marking out the area of their heaven by means of a wall, which contained their piece of the desert, by fasting and prayer for forty days and nights.

Menace of the Pagan Saxons

There is no doubt at all that the initial Saxon onslaught left people shaken. Meurig had managed by endless battles and the help of the Wyche and Dean Forests, which the pagan Saxon feared, so that only certain Roman roads had to be defended, to keep them out of Monmouthshire, after his father the Blessed King Tewdrig had been martyred by those who had been attacking his llan at Tintern (Ty-nderyn-the ‘House of the King’).Monmouthshire (or the Gwent kingdoms as they were then) received a great many refugees from over the border and much of it remained free from Saxon interference until well into the seventh and eighth centuries so it’s Christian basis was safe there, possibly why Cynfarch chose to come to comparative safety here. Much of this remains conjecture, as we have few records, many having been destroyed throughout the years, but safety is surely a very good reason for founding a desert settlement or llan dedicated to a peaceful existence and end. Moreover the settlement of St Cynfarch above Chepstow seems to have had privileged or special status even into Norman times.

Reform and restructuring by the Normans of the llans within the original faith of the Desert Fathers and St Augustine.

When the Normans arrived the Benedictines arrived with them to found the priories in Monmouthshire, but they also began to regularise the Welsh monastic settlements they found there. This was not a kind of ‘Jack boot’ measure destined to shoehorn Welsh monasticism into a Norman understanding, but rather perhaps to reform Welsh practices which over the centuries had deviated somewhat from the original doctrines of St David and the early Welsh saints. There were Druid practices in some places, and what was important for the whole universal church was that the teachings of Christ were adhered to and not mixed with more ancient heresies and, in truth, the Normans did this by reminding them of the spiritual leadership of their inspiration, the Desert fathers, and through them to St Augustine of Hippo, a giant Church teacher, who had written a Rule based on these hermit practices and St Anthony.

St Augustine, therefore , became the pattern for the host of different Welsh ‘llans’ and these communities were helped to build stone churches, if they did not have them already, but had proper priors and a hierarchy, responsible for the upkeep of buildings and souls in the area. The other Order which arrived in Wales and were enthusiastically received by them was that of the Cistercians, of whom we shall speak later. The Cistercians, a more austere Benedictine Order ,worked physically for a living, sought out remote places to worship,live and work and had as a spiritual father the saintly Bernard of Clairvaux. They left a deep impression on Gwent (including Welsh Herefordshire) from their communities at Tintern, Grace Dieu, Llantarnam and Dore.More about them later.

The Augustinians took over the administration of the following places in Wales:

In North Wales: Bardsey Abbey, Gwynedd
Beddgelert Priory, GwyneddPenmon Priory, Anglesey, Puffin Island Priory, Gwynedd, St Tudwal's Island Priory, Gwynedd


In Mid Wales: Carmarthen Priory, Dyfed, Haverfordwest Priory, Pembrokeshire

In South Wales:

Llanthony Prima Priory, Monmouthshire, St Kynemark Priory, Gwent, and Peterstone, St Peter’s Priory, formerly St Arthfael’s, Monmouthshire. (West of Newport)
St Kynemark’s (Cynfarch’s)Priory- Llangynfarch’

We have discussed some of the larger Benedictine Priories in Monmouthshire, and then some of the Augustinian foundations. The Augustinian canons who settled in Llanthony , then their later order of Austin Friars of Newport. We now come to a third. About one mile north of Chepstow lie the remains of another small monastic house. St Kynemark, Kinmarchus, Kinmarch seem to be Norman corruptions of ‘Cynfarch’ as some sort of approximate pronunciation, and this house was the one situated a mile North of Chepstow, but was not a church administered from Chepstow Priory.
It lies on the road from Chepstow , but the church lay on high ground.

The ridge reaches a height of 250 feet above sea level providing extensive views over the lower Wye and the Bristol Channel. To the North is Chepstow Park and to the wet the view is blocked by St Lawrence’s Hill and by Cophill. Butler says in his excellent paper for the Historical Journal of The Church in Wales, that the priory lies close to the cliffs bordering the Wye and the head of a steep side valley from the river;It also commands the head of a more gentle valley sweeping down into Chepstow from springs near Kynemark farm, which was built with many of the ruined building stone.

There is a Church dedicated to Cynfarch at Llanfair Dyffryn,Clwyd,which used to have a ‘Sanctus Kynvarch’ represented in a stained-glass window (Benedictine Records, Farmer).Smashed up in the ravages of the 17th century, precious shards have been put together and replaced in the window. There is another church dedicated to St Cynfarch at the Hope Parish at Flint in North Wales.

Disputed Dedication

St John the Baptist is said to have been the dedicatee of St Cynfarch’s Priory and as a hermit himself, living on what God provided in the mountains, plus the fact that most priories became Augustinian Canons, this would seem the most likely dedication. The Catholic Encyclopedia, however, insists that the Priory at some stage became ‘Premontensian’ or Norbertine. We know that from time to time, however, different orders took over different houses, or even that a new order might be given a lease on some of the buildings to commence in an area, but there seem to be no records of the White Canons to substantiate this, unless it was a very ‘ad hoc’ arrangement, as it often was with mendicant Greyfriars or even the Carmelites. Around 1491 the Priory was in financial difficulties and it may be when perhaps a small Norbertine cell may have moved in .The historian Willis Bund described it as Norbertine or Premontensian after considering it similar to Talley in France, and so in the later 15th century, it is possible that the younger order moved in and cared for the older Augustinians there. It is confusing, but there was clearly input from both orders there, overwhelmingly Augustinian, but perhaps the anglicising to Kynemark implies some imput from the monks of the Holy Norbert of Xanten. We may never know. At any rate in the early middle ages St Kynemark or Llangynfarch was a deeply holy place and the Prior seemed to be on a level with the Abbot of Tintern and the Prior of Chepstow in resolving disputes.

My next post will consider how St Cynfarch/Kynemark’s would have looked and its subsequent history.

Petition for the Intercession of St Cynfarch

Seeing that many were brought to Christ by the radiant example of thy virtuous life/ and thy missionary labours, O holy Cynfarch,/ pray that we too may follow thee/ in the service of our Saviour, that our souls may be saved. AMEN

NEWPORT JUST BEFORE THE SEIZURE OF THE FRIARY ca 1500

This is a conjectural Map of Newport ca 1500 using a later map, which,however still shows the wharf, the 'pill' and also the site of the 'Friars'.If you double click it, you can see more detail!

It is quite sad, that only the St Woolos and St Trioc's Benedictine Priory at Malpas remain of all the churches-St Thomas, St Lawrence, the Old Parish Church, St Nicholas at the Priory and the priory itself have gone.
The remains of the Newport Preaching cross, where Archbishop preached the Crusades in 1188 are in St Woolos Churchyard, (Base)and also at Newport Museum (top) which was knocked off by vandals of Oliver Cromwell smashing up crosses and even churches everywhere they went. I understand that a new cross to the original design has been installed in the precinct behind the King's Head Hotel. Note the Westgate Hotel actually stood on the West gate of the town.

The Newport Friars and 'Friars' Walk'. Last Prior was Father Richard Batte

This is Ann Leaver's amazing picture of ho she thinks Newport wuld have looked. Click on it to see a larger version....You can see the whole brilliant Early History of Newport here



http://www.newportpast.com

You may have to c and p if the link does not work!




________________________________________________________________________

Henry Greene's drawing as still seen in 1891 of one of the remaining buildings of the Newport Friars-now demolished.

Here is a friary, perhaps similar to the Newport building juding by the remains observed in 1859.

___________________________________________________________________________

There are no remains left of the Austin Friars in Newport, but the new Friars Walk Shopping Mall will be located over the old site and the bus station was the site of their Fields, which were given for their upkeep by the Earls of Stafford. There is a map to come which shows the sites of four Churches of 'Novus burgo'(Newport) of the sixteenth century. Here there is a photo of a still existing Augustinian Priory, and there are photos of 'black canons' or Augustinians, who took a vow of poverty and ministered to the poor of Newport, fed and looked after their needs. This was an order based on the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and the desert fathers, hermits who originally lived n the dsert of North Africa and spent their lives in the service of God. When they were overrun by Vandals and Visigoths, they fled to Italy and from there all over Europe. The Order is still a strong force in the world today.

Above is Clare Priory ,a house of similar age to Newport's priory,although it has been added to and improved a great deal since itsfoundation. Clare Priory is one of the oldest religious houses in England; situated in the shadows of Clare Castle on the banks of the River Stour, Suffolk.
Established in 1248 at the invitation of Richard de Clare it was the first house of the Austin (or Augustinian) Friars in England.

Following its taking over by Henry VIII in 1538, the house passed through many hands and uses until the Augustinian Friars purchased the house in 1953 and returned to their origins in England.Clare Priory today acts as a Parish and as a Retreat Centre.It is the home of a mixed community of Augustinian friars and lay people, open to both men and women, seeking to live the Christian life according to the Rule of St. Augustine.
The Rule of St. Augustine emphasises the need to search for God together in order to achieve oneness of mind and heart.There are a number of friaries in England and also there is the new Augustinian Youth Ministry with events and pilgrimges and conferences all over England.

The Newport House will never be seen again. It's story is given below and you have to see how three of the five churches in Newport disappeared in Tudor Times. St Lawrence and St Thomas the parish church also disappeared. The Priory Mill is only remembered by its name-Mill Street.The Earl of Stafford built Newport Castle the same time as he built the Priory, which would have been on a smaller scale than say, Tintern. St Woolos and Our Lady and St Triocus, the Benedictine Cell of Montacute Abbey are all that remain of that time and both are now Anglican parish churches.I hope, that i getting together wha cab foud out about the Austin Friary in Newport, it ll contribute to the interest in the Austin Friars and the Friars Walk, as e remember howany of these Friars died looking after people in the plague.





________________________________________________________________________


AUSTIN FRIARS OF NEWPORT

It seems that many of the Friars were very learned men, some of whom were themselves priests, and no doubt served the Mass at the Church of St Nicholas and possibly the mysterious church of St Thomas (Becket) also a new saint for this parish church, St Woolos belonging to the Benedictines of Gloucester and the brothers serving this priory. During this period, it is also the case that St Woolos remained a place of pilgrimage for the shrine of St Gwynlliw (Gundleius in Latin) which also helped the upkeep of that Church. In the thirteenth century therefore, there was still the old church of Gwynlliw (St Woollos), St Thomas’s Parish Church for the town,St Lawrences in the harbour area, and that of St Nicholas Tolentino. The last two both dedicated to recent saints of great faithfulness and witnessing to Christ’s teaching and mission.

The Friars did not involve themselves in politics. They paid their dues to the Benedictine Church on St Gwynlliw’s hill (now Stow Hill) and the great Cross of the Friars Preacher (The Dominicans who travelled out from Gloucester) Spiritually the people of Newport were well served. The Austin Friars provided valuable services for the people. They lived amongst poverty, in spite of the valuable gifts used to set the Friary up, for most of its time, funds were sparse. The remains of the priory show that this was not a huge priory, and its possessions at its seizure were very sparse. The Augustinians took their vows seriously. They nursed the sick, tried to clothe the naked, provided food or dole for the hungry and took care of widows, orphans and prisoners. It was not long before they were put to the test

The Great Plague of 1349

The Bubonic plague, which swept across the British Isles in 1349 , was as pitiless in Wales. We have already learned of the devastating effect on the brothers and priests in the Benedictine Priories at Monmouth, Abergavenny, where only two or three monks were left.

. At Whitchurch, an inquest into the death of one John le Strange revealed that John had died on 20th August 1349. His oldest son, Fulk, died 2 days before the inquest could be held on 30th August. Before an inquest could be held on Fulk's estate, his brother Humphrey was dead too. John, the third brother, survived to inherit a shattered estate, in which the 3 water mills which belonged to him were assessed at only half their value 'by reason of the want of those grinding, on account of the pestilence.' His land was deemed worthless because all its tenants were dead 'and no-one is willing to hire the land.'

The Welsh poet, Jeuan Gethin, paints a vivid picture of the fear the plague engendered in its victims:

‘A rootless phantom which has no mercy or fair countenance’
'We see death coming into our midst like black smoke, a plague which cuts off the young, a rootless phantom which has no mercy or fair countenance. Woe is me of the shilling in the arm-pit; it is seething, terrible, wherever it may come, a head that gives pain and causes a loud cry, a burden carried under the arms, a painful angry knob, a white lump. It is of the form of an apple, like the head of an onion, a small boil that spares no-one. Great is its seething, like a burning cinder, a grievous thing of an ashy colour. It is an ugly eruption that comes with unseemly haste. It is a grievous ornament that breaks out in a rash. The early ornaments of black death.'

(Jeuan Gethin died in March or April 1349.)

We can only imagine what happened in Newport, especially so close to the river. The first Prior of Newport was Thomas Leche and he probably came from the Austin Friar’s Friary at Stafford. The number of friars at Newport is not definitely known, but generally six was considered a workable number , along with lay brothers, devout men employed by the Abbey (often men who presented themselves for employment. They lived according to the Augustinian Rule (Regula Augustini) and in exchange for their food and lodging and necessities, they worked around the Friary and in the Friary parcels of land. It was a good system, for dealing with unemployment, orphans, widows and all the vulnerable. The Plague did its work. It seems a large part of Newport actually was given for the upkeep of the Friary, which did such good service, and no doubt many of the Friars, in their work of keeping the Last Rites actually died, as did many of the lay brothers. It is possible that this began the decline of the Friary, unable to collect rents or work the land for a generation or so.

1933 Argus Reports of Skeletons,who had been buried under the nave

The only archeological recording carried out on the site of the Austin Friars was in 1933, when workmen laying a pipe beside the new Kingsway Road, discovered seven skeletons. These were lying in a supine position with extended limbs and their heads to the West (they were facing East towards Jerusalem) The bodies could be part of the Friars’ graveyard, or, since most Friars were at that time buried under the nave of the church , it could be this was the site of this holy place. Apparently one piece of Stone from the Austin Friary is in Newport Museum, but not on display.

Burials at the Austin Friars

From evidence of the Austin Friars at Hull and at Leicester (more of these places are extant) citizens of all walks of life and brothers and priests were all buried together in the church in mediaeval practice. The Nave of the church (the ship in which the Faithful were kept safe from danger and ‘sailed’ to salvation, as Noah had done in his ark)was the safe place, and rushes were placed over. It is possible, however, that large numbers were buried outside because of the smell. The dead wore their ‘Sunday Best’ and from archeological finds at other place, many people seem to have worn woollen or tweed type clothes. All the coffins seem to have been made of Baltic oak-possibly even reused-but Baltic oak grows faster, straighter and is easier to work than English oak. So it is possible that in these parcels of land there may have been a forestry project somewhere local. Some of the coffins in Hull were hurriedly put together with planks roughly nailed like a packing crate, points to haste around the plague years and round about this time, it seems that coffin burials were replaced completely by shroud burials, allowing more to be packed in under the nave of the church.

Health of People in later Middle Ages

There seemed to have been a great deal of minor ill health in the skeletons found buried at Hull, which would have been ‘normal’ for the people of 14th century Newport too. There were examples of fractures and infections of the long bones and two skulls with caries. Almost a third of the Skeletons examined suffered from arthritis.

Innovations of the Austin Friars

Many Mediaeval Dominican and Franciscan Friaries taught the wonder of God by huge high naves and buildings. The Austin Friars had something similar to a largish parish church, and preferred to preach from the Preaching Cross on Stow Hill and other public places. This may have even been extant before the arrival of the Austin Friars in 1377. Thus they got to be an institution in the town, a ready source of help for the Community, and a serving church close to the people. Benedictines and Cistercians prayed around the clock for the world. They had their work and charisms, writing gospels and books for people to use, and Cistercians lived in remote areas and worked at keeping the farms and Granges going, feeding everybody and maintaining the buildings. However, the Austin Friars had reverted to the Hermit practices of St Augustine himself. There had been confusion in the early days of the order.

Augustine had started his order in the sands of the desert at his home in Carthage (morocco)However the Vandals overran the area in the middle of the 6th century, he took his monks from their tents and they crossed to Italy and safety. Around 570, St Donatus, rounded Augustinian Orders in Spain and a form of Augustine’s Rule was used to help reform other monasteries and cathedral chapters, and refocus the lives of the Clergy on poverty and the lives of Christ in the 11th century. The Augustinian Rule was also adopted by St Dominic for the Dominicans, who seem to have worked together at Newport. The Dominican Vespers are always very beautiful, for example, as afterwards the Friars would leave the Choir and enter the nave to talk to the people, wishing them a restful night. However the monks at Llanthony were ‘Canons’ and those of Newport were the newer ‘friars’ a mendicant Order. Although they had a means of support, they were dependent on what they were given and did not own property in the sense that the land in Newport (60 land parcels out of a possible 242 or so)perhaps testifying to the fact it was a fairly modest town and that the Lord Hugh Stafford, realised people would be happier having these services and being prepared to work on his ‘New Castle’ – one of the newer ones in Wales.

Owain Glyndwr attaks the Castle

C Maylam says in his paper for the GGAS, the Friary may have also been damaged in 1402 by the supporters of Owain Glyndwr, when he and his men captured the town. A report of 1403 is in existence which says there was little damage to Newport itself, but the English Royal Commissioner who compiled the report did not cross the channel! There may have been a little damage, except to the castle.

Library and possibly a school

Because of the love of learning and the commitment of the Augustinian Order to Schools, it is possible, that the Friars had a school, trained choristers to sing the Mass, Latin and theology and prepared boys for holy orders. In an age where life was hard it was a good option to dispense love to your community. There would have been a library as well. However after the Plague, all would have had to work in the fields for basic survival and the people themselves were allowed to charge higher rates for work, there being so few people, and we all know about the Peasants’ Revolt in the ensuing years when Lords tried to make the people slaves or ‘villeins’ again with disastrous results.

Austin Friars in Hull

We have learned so much from the practices of the Mediaeval Austin Friars in Newport from the excavations in different parts of the country. Hull is perhaps quite similar to Newport being near the sea as well. At the peak of their success there were only 39 Friaries in the whole of England and one in Wales at what was now called ‘New Castle’ after Hugh’s new castle was built much later than those of the Marcher Lords. This is still the name by which it was known in Welsh ‘Cas Newydd’.The Monastic Gardens were the first to go after Henry the VIII seized the lands of these holy men for building etc. However in Hull, the Friary continued to be used as a private house and garden until the mid 17th century which seems to have preserved a lot of the finds. It was a large rectangle divided by pathways and four rectangular plots, with a path around the edge and a large central feature in the middle. Some of the plots were further subdivided into beds for vegetables and herbs and fruits. A conveyancing deed of 1627 gives the dimensions of the monastic gardens as measuring 49 yards by 23 yards-dimensions accurate to within a foot. This would have likely been the scale of our Newport garden, also measured out in similar way.

Food and Monastic Diet

Fish was found to be plentiful and abundant and a major foodstuff, although butchery marks remain on bones found from cattle, pigs and sheep.Ducks would also have been reared as there were wing bones from the animals found as well. This probably points to a fish and duckpond being present in the walls of the Friary. Fish were flatfish and thornback ray.remains of domestic goose were also found. A few deer, hare, snipe and woodcock remains were also found as well as barn owls and even a single crane. Some of these would probably have been festival meals held on saints’ days and major Church Feasts. Generally what is known is that many men carried their own plate with them-possibly a piece of dough, baked hard with a rim-a ‘trencher’ and that food would be put into this. It was probably not hygienic at all, but convenient. Bread was often baked in the oven of a local baker for a small amount of money as were meals, if there was no oven or spit in a poorer house. Rabbits and chicken were plentiful and thus probably cheap to produce. Oyster shells and goat bones were also found as well as hedgehogs!

Buildings

The church building would have been rectangular and from the very small Friary at Austin Friars in Hunscote, Leicester there may have been a tower. Shards of stained glass were also found there, so St Nicholas would have been very beautiful. The roof would have been of slate rather than lead, plentiful in Wales as in Leicester.In Leicester there were burn marks around the window indicating a fire at one time.A ‘parchment pricker’ was also found in the church area as you would expect as one scribe friar would have used this to mark out lines and spaces on parchments to prepare for illuminated manuscripts.

Remains at Newport

This friary seems to have been completely eradicated by the Newport authorities over the years. When Henry the VIII’s minister, the ‘King’s Lord Visitor to the Friars’ , Richard Ingworth a new apostate Bishop of Dover on 8th September 1538. It was in their interest to do this as quickly as possible, as the Friary, although run down after the plague years, was the major source of help, a social services in the lives of ordinary people and their problems.

Father Richard Batte-the Last Prior

Father Richard Batte surrendered the Friary and it is noted he did not sign the Act of Supremacy. It was unusual as priests could be executed for not bowing to the King’s wishes, but it was normal for all to sign this document. It may be that indeed very few Friars remained by this time. There was also no inventory of possessions, possibly because there were so few. We know the land now went to a wealthy person for his own use . The land was now given to a Mr Maurice Baker and that he paid the king 14 shillings and 4 pence in rent-a very low rental, which is probably all the king could get for it. The king was not concerned with the well being of the people after all. The site of the buildings were valued for the king’s coffers at 3shillings and 4 pence as compared with Franciscans in Cardiff at 13 shillings and 4pence and the Dominicans at 10 shillings and four pence. So no doubt the buildings were in a poor state of repair by 1538.

Friars Close

These six acres of arable land called ‘Friars Close’ valued at 1539 at 10 shillings probably represents all the 60 parcels of land given to the Friary for its upkeep and service to the people, and these were never exploited for buildings.

In 1543, the land of the Austin Friars was sold to Sir Edward Carne for £453 18shillings and one and a halfpence along with the English manor of Colwinston and then the Newport land was sold off at a knockdown price to Giles Morgan in 1544.


‘Archdeacon Coxe’ s Visit 1801

Archdeacon Coxe, an Anglican Clergyman visited Newport in 1801 and described what he saw, which remained of the Austen Friars.

‘The Remains consist of several detached buildings containing comfortable apartments, and a spacious hall, with gothic windows neatly finished in free stone; the body of the church is dilapidated, but the northern transept is a small and elegant example of Gothic architechture. It is now occupied by a cider mill and the press is placed by a small recess which was once a small chapel (!) separated from the transept by a bold and lofty arch. The gardens are enclosed within the original walls’.
(Coxe:A Historical Tour Through Monmouthshire. 1801)

In the Scrapbook of William Henry Greene (6th August 1891) we can still see sketches of the remains of the Austen Friars and Friars’ Cottage.(now kept by Torfaen Museum Trust).Before 1859, there was also a drawing by Edward Lee, showing the buildings in a dilapidated conditions. Mr C Neil Maylam suggests it was drawn from the South East and shows ‘part of the cloisteral range’ (where the friars often went for prayer or recreation, or even to wash.

In 1851 in a map drawn for Newport Corporation, the drawings by Lee are referred to as ‘Cornwall and Devonshire House’ which was used by then as a pub. Using Lee’s drawing and Coxe’s description, it is says Mr Maylan in his 1966 report ‘possible to interpret the remaining buildings as the crossing of the church and part of the cloister. This enables a plan of the complex to be drawn.

The surviving buildings were demolished between 1833 and 1902 when the area was used as a timber yard. The area had become a car park before 1933 and apart from the constructions of air raid shelters during the second world war, it continued to be a car park until it became a bus station. Ordinance survey maps also show the wall alongside ‘Friars Road’ as the original close wall so the boundary walls of 1851 are the precinct walls for the monastic close.’

Austin Friars at Newport

Mr Maylan also writes about Leicester, where the remains were more plentiful. The Precinct of the Friary would have been enclosed by a wall, the eastern wall marked in the ordinance survey map. The Southern side would have been close to Commerial Street, the western wall following Corn Street (that in OS map being wrong) and the Northern side was probably the river.

Cloister at St Nicholas's

Inside was more difficult.It seems most Friaries had a cloister a rectangular in shape with a garth or garden in the middle , which was covered and often glazed.The cloister would have been on the south side of the Church if Lee’s drawing is accurate. It would form a three sided cloister with the fourth side being the church. The Friars arrived late in Newport, which would account for the strange layout of the roads, which were in existence before. And the requirement of the church to be placed facing Jesrusalem in the East would produce this odd relationship.

The distance of the street from the central area of the close would be due to the position of the Chapel of St Nicholas from which the church was extended.Auxiliary buildings would therefore be on the eastern sideof the precinct . OS maps have marked a building as a refectory on the eastern side by Mr Maylan doubts this and says it may have been a tithe barn.

The Friary was surrendered to Ingworth on 8th September 1538. He got a good clutch of money for King Henr on that trip.At Chester in August15th, North Wales for five days, August 27th South Wales, Dominicans of Brecon were relieved of their friary on August 29th, Greyfriars (Franciscan) in Ceredigion (Camarthen on the 30th) Dominicans in Haverfordwest September 2nd, Cardiff December 6th (four years after he had told them tha if they accepted Henry VIII as head of his new church, hey would be permitted to stay) and he Newport 8th September.

He had a set procedure for doing his 'visitation'. He rang the bell outside the Austin Friary, assembled the brothers in the hall in the King's name which served as a chapter house (although we know it was a smallish building and very delapidated)The Warden of the Friars would stand there with the brethren and then Ingworth would address them. He would explain he had come to 'reform' them not supress them . He read out certain injuctions about their order and Rule. Why were they not living like the hermits in the desert, perhaps? Here they of course lived in a wet and cold climate and had builigs to maintain and other people to feed and care for. It was all of course nonsense but then Ingworth told Father Batte, that if he acceeded to his demands and recognised Henry as the ne head of a brand new church, tey could remain there. Father Batte and the Brothers could not be bullied and refused to sign the 'Act of Supremacy'.Certainly no signatures were found. Possibly the Friars left their home and went to France or to Italy to other houses of their order, or if old, were taken in by those whom he himself had looked after.To deny the Church and Peter was too serious thing for them. With one fell swoop the town of Newport was denuded of its valuable resource and left as a piece of waste ground and to decay, with little or no provision left for the poor.

Tomorrow a Devotion to St Augustine of Hippo, before I go on with the Augustinian Order in Monmouthshire at the Monastery founded in Norman Times from te Celtic monastery of St Arthfael, laer called 'PETERSTONE' after St Peter, the First Pope and Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ