Parc Le Breos
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''Parc le Breos'' was a great
medieval deer park In medieval and Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, a deer park () was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank, or by a stone or brick wall. The ditch was on the ins ...
in the south of the
Gower Peninsula The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards th ...
, about west of
Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
, Wales, and about north of the Bristol Channel. The
park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
was an enclosed, oval area of in circumference, covering about and measuring  miles (east–west) by just over  miles (4.1 km by 2.9 km). ''Parc le Breos'' was established in the 1220s CE by John de Braose (of the powerful
Cambro-Norman Cambro-Normans (; "Wales", ; ) were Normans who settled in southern Wales and the Welsh Marches after the Norman invasion of Wales. Cambro-Norman knights were also the leading force in the Cambro-Norman invasion of Ireland, led by Richard de ...
de Braose dynasty),
Marcher Lord A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in Fra ...
of Gower and husband to Margaret Ferch Llywelyn, ''Llywelyn Fawr's'' daughter. Other than for deer husbandry, the park received an income from
agistment Agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, in exchange for payment (derived, via Anglo-Norman ''agister'', from the Old French ''gîte">g ...
,
pannage Pannage is the practice of releasing livestock- pigs in a forest, so that they can feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts. Historically, it was a right or privilege granted to local people on common land or in royal forests ...
, and from sales of wild honey, ferns and dead wood. There is evidence of rabbit warrens in the park. Whether the warrens were free or
domestic Domestic may refer to: In the home * Anything relating to the human home or family ** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication ** A domestic appliance, or home appliance ** A domestic partnership ** Domestic science, sometimes cal ...
is unknown. The park's boundary was originally marked by a wooden fence, or pale, on the top of an earth bank inside a ditch. Some parts of the pale survive.
Prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins  million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
finds and an
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...
(above Parkmill) show the area of ''Parc le Breos'' to have been settled by modern humans since the earliest times.


History

The area that would become ''Parc le Breos'' has been inhabited by modern humans since the earliest times. The Cathole Cave – a steep, limestone
outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most p ...
, about from the floor of a dry narrow
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...
, now known as the ''Parc le Breos Cwm'' valley – has been used as a shelter by bands of
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...
hunters and as a
Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two. Excavations revealed two tanged points that may date to c. 28,000  years before present (BP), an
interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...
period during the
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
. Late glacial
tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
finds from the
Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...
date to c. 12,000 BP. Animal remains were found at the same level as the Upper Palaeolithic tools, providing evidence of the climate c. 12,000 BP:
red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...
;
Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small species of fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Tundra#Arctic tundra, Arctic tundra biome. I ...
;
brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...
; tundra vole; and possibly
reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
. Animal remains excavated at the cave during the nineteenth century include
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
,
woolly rhinoceros The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that inhabited northern Eurasia during the Pleistocene epoch. The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. The woolly rhinoceros was larg ...
,
red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...
and giant deer, which are yet to be accurately dated. Several finds date to the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
: a bronze socketed axe; two human skeletons; and sherds of pottery, from burial urns and other vessels. Workmen digging for road stone in 1869 uncovered an early Neolithic
cromlech A cromlech (sometimes also spelled "cromleh" or "cromlêh"; cf Welsh ''crom'', "bent"; ''llech'', "slate") is a megalithic construction made of large stone blocks. The word applies to two different megalithic forms in English, the first being a ...
built around 5850 BP – now known as ''Parc Cwm'' long cairn or ''Parc le Breos'' burial chamber (after the park) – about south of The Cathole Cave, along the ''Parc le Breos Cwm'' valley. An excavation later that year revealed human bones (now known to have belonged to at least 40 people), animal remains and Neolithic
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
. Identified in 1937 as one of the Severn-Cotswold type of
megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...
ic
chambered tomb A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also pas ...
, the cromlech was partly restored following an excavation during 1960–1961. North-West European lifestyles changed around 6,000 BP, from the nomadic lives of the
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
, to a settled life of agricultural farming – the
Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period in Afro-Eurasia from a lifestyle of hunter-gatherer, hunting and gathering to one of a ...
. However, analysis of the human remains found at the cromlech show the tomb to have been accessed for up to 800 years and that the people interred within it continued to be either hunter-gatherers or
herders A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. Th ...
, rather than agricultural farmers. A
trapezoid In geometry, a trapezoid () in North American English, or trapezium () in British English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are ...
al
cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
of rubble – the upper part of the cromlech and its earth covering now removed – about long by (at its widest), is
revetted A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...
by a low
dry-stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...
wall. A bell-shaped, south-facing forecourt, formed by the wall, leads to a central passageway lined with
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
slabs set on end. Human remains had been placed in the two pairs of stone chambers that lead from the passageway. Corpses may have been placed in nearby caves until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb. The Llethryd Tooth Cave, or Tooth Hole cave, is an Early Bronze Age ossuary site in a limestone cave, about north, northwest of the Parc Cwm long cairn cromlech, on private land along the ''Parc le Breos Cwm'' valley, near the village of Llethryd. The cave was rediscovered by cavers in 1961, who found human bones. The excavation carried out by D.P. Webley & J. Harvey in 1962 revealed the disarticulated remains (i.e. incomplete skeletons) of six adults and two children, dated to the Early Bronze Age or Beaker culture. Other contemporary finds, now held at the Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales,
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
, include collared urn pottery, flaked knives, a scraper, flint flakes, a bone spatula, a needle and bead, and animal bones – the remains of domesticated animals, including cat and dog. Archaeologists Alasdair Whittle and Michael Wysocki note that this period of occupation may be "significant", with respect to ''Parc Cwm'' long cairn, as it is "broadly contemporary with the secondary use of the tomb". The '' cwmwd'' of Gŵyr, within the ''
Cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divid ...
'' of
Eginog A commote (, sometimes spelt in older documents as , plural , less frequently )'' Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales. The word derives from the prefix ("together" ...
and part of
Ystrad Tywi Ystrad Tywi (, ''Valley of the river Towy'') is a region of southwest Wales situated on both banks of the River Towy (), it contained places such as Cedweli, Carnwyllion, Loughor, Llandeilo, and Gwyr (although this is disputed). Although ...
, became part of the Kingdom of
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 ...
 – founded by
Hywel Dda Hywel ap Cadell, commonly known as Hywel Dda, which translates to Howel the Good in English, was a Welsh king who ruled the southern Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth and eventually came to rule most of Wales. He became the sole king of Seisyllw ...
(c. 920) from the Kingdoms of
Dyfed Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales, covering the modern counties Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. It is mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed w ...
and Seisyllwg. Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick conquered Gŵyr c. 1100, styling himself Lord of Gower. Southern Gower was colonised, and eventually became heavily
anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...
. Rhys Gryg – fourth son of
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' ...
(The Lord Rhys) – of Deheubarth occupied the peninsula in 1215, but in 1220 he ceded the area to the English, apparently on the orders of
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (, – 11 April 1240), also known as Llywelyn the Great (, ; ), was a medieval Welsh ruler. He succeeded his uncle, Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, as King of Gwynedd in 1195. By a combination of war and diplomacy, he dominate ...
. Before becoming a park, the area of ''Parc le Breos'' had been woodland. Its harvesting was implied on medieval rolls. The Act of Union (1536) made the Lordship of Gower part of the historic county of
Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...
, and the south-western section became the
Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of Swansea. A Hunting Lodge was built in the 19th century, about north east of ''Parc Cwm'' long cairn. It is now an hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre and retains the name ''Parc le Breos''.


Lunnon

The eastern half of ''Parc le Breos'' became a demesne farm – a manorial farm also known as a grange, probably in the late 13th century. Other than it being woodland in the 1220s, little more is known of the area until this time. The Lord of Gower's grange is noted on an account roll for 1337–8; as 'Grangia de Lunan'. – in which the village of Lunnon would be built. During the mid 16th century the remainder of the park changed use too, from a deer park to farmland, when all but the limestone gorge ''cwm'' and about 500 acres of woodland was divided into three farms.


Location

The remaining parkland of ''Parc le Breos'' is in ''Coed y Parc'', about seven  miles (12 km) west south west of
Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
, Wales, in the southern part of central
Gower Peninsula The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards th ...
, between the villages of Llanrhidian and Bishopston (). Its nearest village is Parkmill, a small rural settlement about to the south east. ''Coed y Parc'' is owned and managed by
Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales () is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Countryside Council for Wales, E ...
. Pedestrian access is allowed and is free, with free parking for 12–15 cars about from the site. On the opposite side of the lane to the car park a
kissing gate A kissing gate is a gate that allows people, but not livestock, to pass through. The normal construction is a half-round, rectangular, trapezoidal or V-shaped part-enclosure with the free end of a hinged gate trapped between its arms. When th ...
, wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through, leads to an asphalt track running past the cromlech and the length of the gorge, allowing flat, disabled access to within about of the cromlech. ''Parc Cwm'' long cairn is maintained by ''
Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...
'' (''to keep''), the
Welsh Assembly Government Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...
's historic environment division.


Bibliography

Leighton, David K. 'A fresh look at Parc le Breos', Gower, 50 (1999), pp. 71–79, Publisher: Gower Society, .


References


External links


Cadw visitor's page
{{Gower Peninsula Gower Peninsula 1220s establishments in Europe History of Wales Landscape design history Parks in Swansea 13th-century establishments in Wales