Llanddewi Rhydderch is a village in

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, Wales at OS . It is off the B4233 road, roughly southeast of

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

, lying within the administrative community of Gobion Fawr.

History

The township of Llanddewi Rhydderch grew around the small ''llan'', or

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

cell named after

St. David Saint David ( cy, Dewi Sant; la, Davidus; ) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail ab ...

. St David's Church holds regular services every week. The present incumbent, Fr John Humphries, has served in the parish since 2012. In 2015 the church was successful in obtaining a National Lottery Grant to clear land at the back of the church to turn into a WW1 Memorial Meadow. The

churchyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...

has a very old

yew tree Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus br ...

, which may be many centuries old and became a finalist in Woodland Trust Welsh tree of the year competition. The village has been home to the honorary consulate of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

since 1996. It is the only official representation of the country in Europe.

Landmarks

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

chapel on the edge of the village 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 Irel ...

and holds services every Sunday.

Notable people

Josh Wardle Josh Wardle is a Welsh software engineer who developed the viral web-based word game ''Wordle''. The New York Times Company acquired ''Wordle'' from Wardle in late January 2022. Wardle lives in Brooklyn, New York. Early life and education ...

, the developer of the web-based word game

Wordle ''Wordle'' is a Browser game, web-based word game created and developed by Welsh people, Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle, and owned and published by The New York Times Company since 2022. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word ...

, was brought up in the village. In 2022 he sold the game to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' for a sum in excess of $1m.

References

External links

Photo of the church

Chapel Website
Villages in Monmouthshire {{Monmouthshire-geo-stub