Rockfield is a small village in the community of Whitecastle,

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 ...

, Southeast

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It is located beside the

River Monnow The River Monnow ( cy, Afon Mynwy) marks the England–Wales border for much of its length. After flowing through southwest Herefordshire, England, and eastern Monmouthshire, Wales, its confluence with the River Wye is approximately south of ...

, about north-west of

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

, at the junction of the B4233 to

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 ...

and the B4347 to Grosmont.

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

is situated just south of the village.

Placename

The use of the English name, Rockfield, is first documented in 1566. However, it is believed that the name dates back to the 11th century, being derived from the French, Rocheville. The pre-

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 ...

name for the settlement was Llanoronwy, and the Welsh Academy dictionary still gives the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

name for the village as ''Llanoronwy Carn Cenhedlon''. There was some controversy late in 2010, when

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) ( cy, Cyngor Sir Fynwy) is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 an ...

reintroduced the Welsh name on local signage. The name was removed from the signs in 2011 after complaints from villagers.

Church of St Cenedlon

The village church is dedicated to an early Welsh saint, Cenedlon, who may have been the wife of Arthfael ab Ithel, king of Gwent in the 7th century. Some old sources show it as being also dedicated to

Saint Kenelm Saint Kenelm (or Cynehelm) was an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon saint, venerated throughout medieval England, and mentioned in the ''Canterbury Tales'' (The Nun's Priest's Tale, lines 290–301, in which the cockerel Chauntecleer tries to demonstrate ...

, a 9th-century

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

n martyr. However, the Welsh name ''Llanoronwy'' appears to derive from a third name, Goronwy. The church tower is mediaeval, but the rest of the church was rebuilt and refitted in 1859–60 by

John Prichard John Prichard (6 May 1817 – 13 October 1886) was a Welsh architect in the neo-Gothic style. As diocesan architect of Llandaff, he was involved in the building or restoration of many churches in south Wales. Personal history John Prichard wa ...

and

John Pollard Seddon John Pollard Seddon FRIBA (19 September 1827 – 1 February 1906) was a British architect, working largely on churches. His father was a cabinetmaker, and his brother Thomas Seddon (1821–1856) a landscape painter. Born in London, he was educa ...

in the Early English and Perpendicular styles. It contains a painted

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

, dated 1700.John Newman, ''The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire'', Penguin Books, 2000, , pp. 517–518 It also contains, beneath the altar, the grave of Bishop Matthew Pritchard, the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Vicar Apostolic of the Western District between 1713 and 1744. In retirement, he lived with a Catholic family in a mediaeval mansion, Perthîr, beside the river; the house was demolished around 1830. The Catholic Registers of Perthîr in the County of Monmouth, 1758–1818
Accessed 5 February 2012 File:St Cenedlon's Church, Rockfield, Monmouth 2.jpg File:St Cenedlon's Church, Rockfield, Monmouth.jpg File:Rockfield Church - geograph.org.uk - 245816.jpg

Other notable buildings

Several buildings in and around the village were constructed as part of the

Rolls Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

estate. One of the entrance lodges to the family home at

The Hendre The Hendre, ( cy, Yr Hendre a farmer's winter residence; literally meaning old home) in Rockfield, is the only full-scale Victorian country house in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. The ancestral estate of the Rolls family, it was the child ...

, to the west, is sited immediately north of the village. Almshouses, provided in 1906 by Lord Llangattock for retired estate workers, are located beside the main road south of the village. They were designed by

Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

and built in local

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

with

half-timber Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

ing. To the north of the village, Pentwyn is a house designed and occupied from 1837 by the Monmouth architect

George Vaughan Maddox George Vaughan Maddox (1802–27 February 1864) was a nineteenth-century British architect and builder, whose work was undertaken principally in the town of Monmouth, Wales, and in the wider county. Working mainly in a Neo-Classical style, hi ...

, and later extended as a parsonage.

Politics

The village falls under the community of

Llangattock-Vibon-Avel Llangattock-Vibon-Avel ( cy, Llangatwg Feibion Afel) is a rural parish and former community, now in the community of Whitecastle in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located west of Monmouth and some east of Aber ...

and the constituency of Monmouth.

Gallery

File:St Cenedlon's church, Rockfield - geograph.org.uk - 1009746.jpg, St Cenedlon church File:Rockfield Lodge - geograph.org.uk - 1241381.jpg, Gateway at Rockfield leading to

Image:Entering Rockfield, or Llanoronwy - geograph.org.uk - 1241400 sign only.tif, Road sign containing English and the contentious Welsh name

References

{{authority control Villages in Monmouthshire