St Pierre is a former parish and hamlet in Monmouthshire, south east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, south west of

Chepstow Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...

and adjacent to the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

. It is now the site of a large

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

and

country club A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offe ...

, the

Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hote ...

St Pierre Hotel & Country Club, which was previously a large

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

and deer park belonging to the Lewis family.

History

The manor of St Pierre was originally part of the parish of Runston, now a deserted village whose only standing remains are Runston Chapel, and was later amalgamated for civil purposes with the neighbouring parish of

Mathern Mathern ( cy, Matharn; older form: ''Merthyr Tewdrig'') is a historic community (parish) and village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, about south west of the town of Chepstow, close to the Severn estuary, the Bristol Channel and the M48 mot ...

. It is uncertain whether the name originates from a Welsh family, Pŷr, or is of Norman origin. Around 1380, St Pierre was owned by Sir David ap Philip, who served under

King Henry V Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hu ...

in France, and the name of his son, Lewis, was later adopted by his family and descendants as their surname. The manor continued to be held by the Lewis family until about 1910. One descendant of the family - General Lewis still lives in the mansion. Thomas Lewis, Esq., married the daughter of Sir

Richard Levett Sir Richard Levett (also spelled Richard Levet) (died 1711), Sheriff, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, was one of the first directors of the Bank of England, an adventurer with the London East India Company and the proprietor of the trading f ...

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

, and other Lewis family members also made propitious marriages. Several members of the family became

High Sheriffs of Monmouthshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replaced ...

.Sir

Joseph Bradney Colonel Sir Joseph Alfred Bradney, (11 January 1859 – 21 July 1933) was a British soldier, historian and archaeologist, best known for his multivolume ''A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present T ...

, ''A History of Monmouthshire'', 1904–33 Others became

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, including Thomas Lewis who was MP for Monmouth, Newport and Usk between 1713 and 1752. His family took over and developed the "

New Passage New Passage is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England, on the banks of the Severn estuary near the village of Pilning. It takes its name from the ferry service which operated between there and South Wales until 1886. Ferry History New Pas ...

" ferry service across the

Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

from Black Rock, in competition with the "Old Passage" service run from Beachley by the Duke of Beaufort. In 1925, the mansion and deer park were sold to Daniel Lysaght. The former manor house includes an important 16th-century gatehouse which is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

, but the remainder of the building was largely built in the 19th century. Major extensions have been added since the house became a hotel in the 1960s. It was bought by Tintern Abbey Hotels in 1961, and a golf course (now "the Old Course") was opened in 1962 with a second course in 1975.

Church of St Peter

The church of St Peter is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

. It is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

in origin, with the earliest records dating to 1254. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is Norman, but little remains of the Norman fabric. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was added in the 14th century. New windows and fittings were installed in the 16th century. The church was restored in the Victorian manner by A. W. Maberly of Gloucester in 1873 to 1875, when altar front, screen and font were reinstalled, these having been removed during the Commonwealth period. The church was further restored by Eric Francis in the early 20th century. It has been suggested that the church may be of Saxon origin. It has a Norman doorway and windows, but was largely rebuilt in later centuries. In the chancel are two ancient stone coffin lids, each bearing an inscription in Norman French, one to Urien de St Pierre, lord of the manor, who died in 1239 and the other to a contemporary cleric of the church, Rector Benet. There are also numerous wall-mounted monuments to members of the Lewis family. The church is adjacent to the main house, now the country club, and is in the parish of Mathern. There are weekly Sunday morning services.

Golf club

St Pierre Golf & Country Club was the venue for the

Curtis Cup The Curtis Cup is the best known team trophy for women amateur golfers, awarded in the biennial Curtis Cup Match. It is co-organised by the United States Golf Association and The R&A and is contested by teams representing the United States and ...

in 1980, the

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian- American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force b ...

in 1996, and the PGA Welsh Masters in 2000. The club has also hosted many

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

events including the Epson Grand Prix of Europe from 1986 to 1991 (

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

until 1989 and then stroke play), and the

British Masters The Betfred British Masters is a professional golf tournament. It was founded in 1946 as the Dunlop Masters and was held every year up to 2008, except for 1984. Dunlop's sponsorship ended in 1982, and the name sponsor changed frequently therea ...

on eight occasions between 1971 and 1983. The Old Course boasts a championship length of over 6,000 yards, par 72. It hosted the 2010

Fightmaster Cup The Fightmaster Cup is a match play golf tournament involving players from North America and Europe. It is an event which involves golfers with the use of one arm only, with it being the first international tournament in history for one-armed golfe ...

. File:St Pierre entrance arch 2.jpg, Entrance arch File:St Pierre entrance arch 1.jpg, Entrance arch File:St Pierre courtyard.jpg, Courtyard

St Pierre Pill

St Pierre Pill, south of the golf club on the

Wales Coast Path The Wales Coast Path ( cy, Llwybr Arfordir Cymru) is a designated long-distance trail which follows, or runs close to, the coastline of Wales. Launched in 2012, the footpath is long and was heralded as the first dedicated coast path in the wor ...

, is an anchorage for small boats on the

. It is the base of the Chepstow and District Yacht Club. There is a small lighthouse known as Redcliffe Lights, on Red Cliff overlooking the harbour, which is operated by the

Gloucester Harbour Trustees The Gloucester Harbour Trustees are the competent harbour authority (CHA) for the tidal part of the River Severn from the Gloucester weirs (Llanthony Llanthony (, cy, Llanddewi Nant Honddu ) is a village in the community of Crucorney on the ...

. The harbour originally covered a much larger area, later silted up, and is believed to be the site of an important post-Roman harbour, associated with legends of St Tewdric. A ninth-century source which refers to the harbour as ''Porth-is-Coed'' – a name later used for the nearby village of Portskewett – also provides the first description of the tidal cycle in Britain. According to

Fred Hando Frederick James Hando MBE (23 March 1888 – 17 February 1970) was a Welsh writer, artist and schoolteacher from Newport. He chronicled the history, character and folklore of Monmouthshire, which he also called Gwent, in a series of nearly ...

, as recently as 1860, the harbour was navigable by 70-ton barges as far upstream as the present golf club.Chris Barber (ed.), '' Hando's Gwent'', 1987, Hando reports also that the

Welsh Triads The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...

described it as "one of the three great ports of Britain." Hando. F. J., 1954, ''Monmouthshire Sketch Book'', Newport, R. H. Johns, Chapter VI – Black Rock and Heston Brake.

References

External links

Marriott St. Pierre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Pierre, Monmouthshire Former populated places in Wales Villages in Monmouthshire