Abbeycwmhir or Abbey Cwmhir (, "Abbey in the Long Valley") is a village and

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

in the valley of the Nant Clywedog in

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, Wales. The community includes the hamlet of Bwlch-y-sarnau. It was

historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

Radnorshire Radnorshire () was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974, later becoming a Districts of Wales, district of Powys from 1974 to 1996. It covered a sparsely populat ...

The Abbey

The village is named after

Cwmhir Abbey Cwmhir Abbey (), near Llandrindod Wells in Powys, is a Welsh Cistercian monastery founded in 1176 by Cadwallon ap Madog. A spurious tale was later recorded that the abbey was founded in 1143 by Meredudd ap Maelgwn at Ty-faenor, and then refoun ...

, the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

built there in 1143. It was the largest abbey in Wales, but was never completed. Its fourteen bay

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 ...

was longer than

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

and

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture, ...

naves and twice as long as that at St. Davids. It was a

daughter house A dependency, among monastic orders, denotes the relation of a monastic community with a newer community that it has founded elsewhere. The relationship is that of the founding abbey or conventual priory, termed the motherhouse, with a monastery ...

Whitland Abbey Whitland Abbey ( or simply ; ) was a country house and Cistercian abbey in the parish of Llangan, in what was the hundred of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The town which grew up nearby is now named Whitland after it. It was widely known as ...

, and was constructed at the behest of three sons of Madog, the then Prince of southern Powys. The first community at Dyvanner (, "Manor House") failed because of the intervention of

Hugh de Mortimer Hugh de Mortimer (1117 – 26 February 1180/81) was a Norman English medieval lord. Lineage The son of Ranulph de Mortimer, he was Lord of Wigmore Castle, Stratfield Mortimer, Cleobury Mortimer and at times, Bridgnorth, Bishop's Castle and ...

Earl of Hereford Earl of Hereford is a title in the ancient feudal nobility of England, encompassing the region of Herefordshire, England. It was created six times. The title is an ancient one. In 1042, Godwin, Earl of Wessex severed the territory of Herefordshir ...

, but in 1176

Rhys ap Gruffydd Rhys ap Gruffydd or ap Gruffudd (often anglicised to "Griffith"; c. 1132 – 28 April 1197) was the ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south Wales from 1155 to 1197. Today, he is commonly known as The Lord Rhys, in Welsh ''Yr Arglwydd Rhys' ...

Deheubarth Deheubarth (; , thus 'the South') was a regional name for the Welsh kingdoms, realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd (Latin: ''Venedotia''). It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under ...

re-established the Abbey on land given by

Cadwallon ap Madog Cadwallon ap Madog was the son of Madog ab Idnerth who had died in 1140, while Idnerth was a grandson of Elystan Glodrydd who had died in around 1010 and had founded a dynasty in the Middle Marches of Wales, in the area known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafre ...

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ( – 11 December 1282), also known as Llywelyn II and Llywelyn the Last (), was List of rulers of Gwynedd, Prince of Gwynedd, and later was recognised as the Prince of Wales (; ) from 1258 until his death at Cilmeri in 128 ...

is buried near the altar in the nave. The abbey was burned by the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (28 May 135420 September 1415), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (Glyn Dŵr, , anglicised as Owen Glendower) was a Welsh people, Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Wales in the late Middle Ages, late Middle ...

in 1401. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in March 1537, only three monks lived in the abbey. The Abbey was

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative, or social structures. This destruction of property is sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It ...

in 1644, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, although some ruins still remain. There is a memorial stone to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

of direct descent, whose body is buried there.

Places of note

* The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...

style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a granddaughter of Francis Philips, who purchased the Abbeycwmhir estate in 1837 with money from the cotton trade. It replaced a church built in 1680. Soon after the Victorian church was built, the writer

Francis Kilvert Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death. Life Kilvert was born on 3 ...

visited. * The Happy Union Inn is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building. Its age is unknown. The present owner is the third generation of his family to run the pub. *

Abbey Cwmhir Hall Abbey-Cwm-Hir Hall is a neo-Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan English country houses, country house in the Wales, Welsh county of Powys. History The hall was built in 1833 for Thomas Wilson (mayor), Thomas Wilson, a London lawyer, on the sit ...

is a

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

house built in 1833 by Thomas Wilson, a London lawyer who had purchased the 3000 acre Abbeycwmhir estate. It is open to the public.

References

External links

Village website
{{authority control Communities in Powys Villages in Powys Burial sites of the House of Aberffraw

The Abbey

Places of note

See also

References

External links