Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association Blog

Growing up in Llanarth by Peter Nash Llanarth Court: Photograph taken by Peter’s parents I was brought up in the village of Llanarth, half way though the last century. My parents had come to the village in 1949, to take up jobs as teachers in Llanarth Court in the recently opened boys’ preparatory school, Blackfriars, run by Dominicans. I was born 10 months after their arrival and my mother stopped work. We lived in the Pitt House, a 17 th Century farmhouse with a priest’s hole in the central chimney: Llanarth was and always had been a Catholic village. In 1953 mum then got a job in the village school, Clytha RC, but known to everyone locally as the Pitt School. It had two teachers, upstairs for juniors, where Eileen Badham, ruled with a rod of iron, and downstairs for Infants, where my mum held sway. There were about 40 pupils at this time. I started school, before my fourth birthday, as a dispensation for my mother.  I soon learned that the highlight of...

Panteg Church A beautiful building steeped in history. Tucked away on the eastern fringe of New Inn it is just 30 minutes walk from where I live in Griffithstown. A building has stood on this site from Norman times and possibly earlier although the church was almost completely rebuilt in the Victorian period. The embattled tower is, however, fifteenth century. Its registers date from 1598. From memory the earliest volume includes a note c 1645 that it had been hidden lest it fall into the wrong hands – a reference no doubt to the parliamentary army during the Civil War – it is this reference that has probably given rise to the claim that the church was pillaged at the time. Set in its idyllic, rural surroundings, the church’s relationship with the expanding industrial communities to the west is an interesting one. it is reflected in the letter written to the Panteg Local Board in 1879 which complained of the bad state of the road between Griffithstown and the church. Griffith...

Jeremy Knight: Grand Pressigny (Indre et Loire) in the Touraine.  A twelfth century keep at Grand Pressigny (Indre et Loire) in the Touraine. The missing side was not due to some French Cromwell, but fell down in the 1980s, revealing this remarkable cross section. Notice the spiral stairs on the left. This little French hill town is also famous for its neolithic flint mines, producing a distinctive honey coloured flint, well represented in the excellent museum of prehistory next to the castle in the Touraine. Jeremy is a founder member of the Castle Studies Group. See  http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/ When you are next able to visit France after Lock-down, Take Jeremy's book  Roman France An Achaeological Field Guide.  with you.

A Vanished Castle in Newport Ebboth or Greenfield Castle A sketch copied from the the Tithe Map and with features such as the possible motte copied from the  OS map 25" to the mile. The existing mound is small and might not be a motte.  In March 1457 Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke and Margaret Beaufort, the thirteen year old widow of his brother Edmund, were guests of the duke of Buckingham at his castle of Ebboth (or Greenfield).   We would now call this Maesglas, part of Newport close to the river Ebbw.   So where was this castle that was fit to receive such visitors, and why not use the duke’s castle at Newport? Margaret had given birth two months earlier at Pembroke castle to her only child.   He would eventually become Henry VII, the first Tudor king, and father of Henry VIII.   She was a tiny person, the birth had apparently been difficult, and travelling was not easy.   The likely explanation is that as a rich and under age w...

The Roman Fort Plaque in Castle Street  The Romans and Abergavenny The Roman name for Abergavenny was Gobannium – it is listed in the 3 rd century road map known as the Antonine Itinerary as a stopping-place or mansio , which suggests it was a place of some importance. Gobannium is a Latinised version of an original Celtic place-name, now thought to be ‘the place of Gobannos’, a celtic smith-god. The earliest Roman occupation at Abergavenny in the first century AD was a fort built at the same time as the one at Usk. Archaeological excavations have found the remains of timber framed buildings and even a cast window-pane – luxury! Later excavations showed that there were several phases of building on the site of the Roman fort which is where the Castle Street car park now lies. It seems to have followed the traditional form of a Roman fort with barrack blocks, granaries and a central administrative building. Much of their rubbish was thrown over the rampart at th...

CBA Festival of Archaeology to go ahead with revised format 15 April 2020 In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the  Council for British Archaeology  (CBA) has decided to make some changes to the 2020 CBA Festival of Archaeology. It will now be taking place in two parts with a series of digital events in July and on the ground events in October. We know how many people look forward to the Festival each July, so we have decided to hold a week of digital activity to ensure everyone can still enjoy the Festival despite the current social distancing measures. The second week in October will provide the opportunity to participate in on the ground Festival events and activities around the UK. Attending events in your local area is a great way to support the local groups, charities, museums and heritage organisations that have been affected by the current crisis.     This year’s Festival theme is  Climate and Environment  and we’ll b...

Megalithic Burial Chambers David Young the artist and a member of the MAA, has sent two of his evocative water colours. David writes. ‘ Here are two water colours of mine that I did some years ago, based on photographs taken by me, of Pentre Ifan and Carreg Samson, Neolithic burial chambers in Pembrokeshire. The weather was not like that shown in the pictures. I remember deciding to make one peaceful and sunny and the other ominous and stormy. I think the representation of the monuments was fairly accurate, though not in the style that professional antiquarians would choose. I was attending the Summer Meeting of the Cambrians in 1992, but I have been to both sites since.’ He adds ‘Don't take the background hills in my picture as authentic. I used artistic licence to bring them nearer.’ Pentre Ifan, Pembrokeshire   © David Young Carreg Samson Pembrokeshire     © David Young Editor’s comments Dating: Although these ...

This tombstone is part of the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.  Photograph taken  7/7/2015 This tombstone is on display in the National Roman Legion Museum and it is a favourite of mine because it relates to a woman who had reached the age of 65 and it was put up by her ‘devoted daughter’ Tadia Exuperata. I love the use of the term ‘devoted’. It shows a strong family link that was based on Isca Legionary Fortress and the ‘canabae’ or civil settlement that surrounded it. The photo is one of mine and I have brightened the original a bit so that it is easier to read the inscription. The tombstone (RIB 369): This is the tombstone of Tadia Vallaunius and also commemorates her son Tadius Exuperatus who died in a war ‘on the German Expedition'. He seems to have been the son of a legionary soldier from Caerleon and a local lady, Tadia Vallaunius. Vallaunius is a Celtic name and although this 'us' ending is masculine in Latin, it can als...

Why the blog is so important at this time As you are aware the events for this year have been postponed. We do not know when the lock down will cease but this blog can continue to provide information about our past events and keep us in touch. This is our first blog and I would like to invite you, the members of the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association, to send information that you would like to have uploaded. Choose anything that you think would interest our fellow members. It might be a picture you have taken of an outing or visit or a picture of an artefact you have taken from a webpage. If it is not your own picture we will have to seek permission for copyright. If we can't get copyright I can always provide a link to the image. Send it to my email address and I will upload it for you but please write something about it. Eg where it was taken, or why you have chosen this picture or artefact.  This will help us keep in touch and make the weeks fly by. I will begin by...