St Dogmaels () is a village,

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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 ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

, Wales, on the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

of the

River Teifi The River Teifi ( ; , ), formerly anglicised as Tivy, forms the boundary for most of its length between the Welsh counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, and for the final of its total length of , the boundary between Ceredigion and Pembr ...

, a mile downstream from the town of Cardigan in neighbouring

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

. A little to the north of the village, further along the estuary, lies

Poppit Sands Poppit is a small, dispersed settlement which lies on the southern side of the estuary of the River Teifi, near Cardigan, Ceredigion, Cardigan, in northern Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is primarily known for its popular sandy beach, called Pop ...

beach. The parish includes the small settlement of Cippyn, south of

Cemaes Head Cemaes Head (formerly Cemais, and historically anglicised as Cemmaes, Kemmaes or Kemmes) (Welsh: ''Pen Cemaes'' or ''Trwyn Cemaes'') is a headland and nature reserve in north Pembrokeshire. It lies in the community of St Dogmaels, within the Pe ...

Name

The English and Welsh names seem to bear no similarity, but it has been suggested that possibly both names refer to the same saint or founder

Dogmael Saint Dogmael (or Docmael, Dogfael, Dogmeel, Dogwel, Toel) was a 6th-century Welsh monk and preacher who is considered a saint. His feast day is 14 June. Life Dogmael (or Dogfael, Dogwel) was of the house of Cunedda, descended from the kings of ...

(Dogfael), with ‘mael’ (prince) and ‘tud’ (land or people of) being added to Dog/doch as in ''Dog mael'' and ''Tud doch''. It is the current standard usage not to have a full-stop after the 'St' or an apostrophe in 'Dogmaels'.

History

St Dogmaels Abbey The Abbey of St Mary (also known as St Dogmaels Abbey) is Grade I listed ruined abbey in St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the banks of the River Teifi and close to Cardigan, Ceredigion, Cardigan and Poppit Sands. It is the ruins of a med ...

is 12th-century Tironesian and was one of the richer monastic institutions in Wales. Adjacent to the abbey

ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

is the parish church (

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

) of St Thomas, which appears successively to have occupied at least three sites close to or within the abbey buildings. The present building is a respectable minor Victorian edifice and contains the Ogam Sagranus stone. St Dogmaels was once a

marcher borough The Welsh Marches () is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ''Marchia W ...

George Owen of Henllys George Owen of Henllys (1552 – 26 August 1613) was a Welsh antiquarian, author, and naturalist. Early life George Owen was the eldest son born to Elizabeth Herbert and William Owen in Henllys of the parish of Nevern, near Newport, Pembroke ...

, in 1603, described it as one of five Pembrokeshire boroughs overseen by a portreeve. The parish appeared (as ''Sct. Dogmels'') on a 1578 parish map of Pembrokeshire. In the 1830s, the population of the parish was 2,109, and it was subdivided into four

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

: Cippyn, Abbey, Pant-y-groes and Bridgend. In 1832, the Bridgend and Abbey hamlets were included in the Cardigan constituency. The constituency boundary was subsequently also adopted for the

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

of Cardigan in 1836. Under the

Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...

, boroughs were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries and so the borough of Cardigan was placed entirely in Cardiganshire, leaving St Dogmaels village and parish split between the two counties. The 19th century boundary changes were partially reversed in 2003; the Bridgend area remained in

(as Cardiganshire had become), but the rest of the old parish of St Dogmaels was reunited as a single community in Pembrokeshire. There are more than 30

listed building 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, Hi ...

s in the parish, including the parish church, the abbey and the mediaeval flour mill, ''Y Felin''. In 2006, the village won the Wales

Calor Village of the Year The Calor Village of the Year comprised 4 annual competitions organised by gas provider Calor to identify the villages that best met the following criteria: "a well-balanced, pro-active, caring community which has made the best of local opportuni ...

competition after beating

Trefriw Trefriw () is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the river Crafnant a few miles south of the site of the Roman fort of Canovium, sited at Caerhun. At the last three censuses, the population of the community ha ...

in the final.

Pembrokeshire Coast Path

Start-end point of the Wales Coast Path at St Dogmaels

The northern end of the

Pembrokeshire Coast Path The Pembrokeshire Coast Path (), often called the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, is a designated National Trail in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. Established in 1970, it is a long-distance walking route, mostly at cliff-top level, with a total ...

is often regarded as being at

, near St. Dogmaels, where the official plaque was originally sited but the path now continues to St. Dogmaels, where a new marker was unveiled in July 2009. Here the path links with the

Ceredigion Coast Path The Ceredigion Coast Path () is a waymarked long distance footpath in the United Kingdom, on the coast of Ceredigion, Wales. It is in length, running along the coast of Cardigan Bay from Cardigan, Ceredigion, Cardigan to Ynyslas ...

, which continues northwards as part of the

Wales Coast Path The Wales Coast Path () 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 world to cover the entire len ...

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

of the same name exists, stretching to include the community of

Nevern Nevern () is both a parish and a Community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The community includes the settlements of Felindre Farchog, Monington, Pembrokeshire, Monington, Moylgrove and Bayvil. The small village lies in the River Neve ...

. The population taken at the 2011 census was 2,218.

Shakespeare in St Dogmaels Abbey

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

play is performed annually in the abbey during the summer since the first play was performed in 1987. The actors are both local and from all parts of Great Britain.

Notable people

* Joseph Harris (1773–1825), was born at Llan-ty-ddewi, St. Dogmells. He was a Welsh Baptist minister, author, journal editor and a Welsh language poet. He took the Biblical name of ''Gomer'' as his bardic name. * Rhodri Thomas (born 1942), born in St Dogmaels, a Welsh former first-class cricketer.

Twinning

St Dogmaels is twinned with the village of

Trédarzec Trédarzec (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. Etymology The name is ''treb'' = farmstead, ''tarz'' = spring. Population Inhabitants of Trédarzec are called ''trédarzécois'' in French. ...

Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor ( , ; ; , ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord until 1990 (, ), is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

References

External links

Further historical information and sources on GENUKI
*
Abbey Shakespeare PlayersPhotographs of St Dogmaels and surrounding area on Geograph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Dogmaels Villages in Pembrokeshire Communities in Pembrokeshire