Treffgarne ( cy, Trefgarn, or ''town of the rock'') is a small village and

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

, south-west

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 lies to the south of the

Preseli Hills The Preseli Hills or, as they are known locally and historically, Preseli Mountains, (Welsh: ''Mynyddoedd y Preseli / Y Preselau'' , ) is a range of hills in western Wales, mostly within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The range stret ...

close to the

Western Cleddau The River Cleddau ( cy, Afon Cleddau) consists of the Eastern and Western Cleddau rivers in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. They unite to form the Daugleddau estuary and the important harbour of Milford Haven. The name of the combined estuary – ...

river, and close to the main

A40 road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

from

Fishguard Fishguard ( cy, Abergwaun, meaning "Mouth of the River Gwaun") is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a population of 3,419 in 2011; the community of Fishguard and Goodwick had a population of 5,407. Modern Fishguard consists of two pa ...

Haverfordwest Haverfordwest (, ; cy, Hwlffordd ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a community, being the second most populous community in the county, ...

. The area has an interesting local geology and evidence of mineral extraction at least as far back as Roman times. The present village is medieval in origin.

Geology

The village name is derived from the Welsh-language words ''tref'' ("town") and ''carn'' ("cairn, mound, rock"). The reference in this case is to the Treffgarne Rocks, a series of ancient

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged mag ...

s, now exposed, that form the Roche Rhyolite Group. A number of interesting minerals have been recorded including

brookite Brookite is the orthorhombic variant of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which occurs in four known natural polymorphic forms (minerals with the same composition but different structure). The other three of these forms are akaogiite (monoclinic), anatas ...

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

s (

titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolubl ...

) and possibly

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

. Small regular cavities can be found in the rocks where crystals of at least 1 cm (½") width once resided.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

has also been found at the rocks from drillcores and placer gold in the local Western Cleddau below the village. There is also an old legend of old gold workings near Treffgarne (possibly towards the farm Mount Pleasant) from the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. Roman activity is certainly attested in the region with at least two

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a ...

settlements nearby at Ambleston (Castle Flemming) and Wolfscastle and a possible extension of the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

into

History

The site of the village itself goes back to at least the

medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. Evidence for this is in the form of a nearby medieval strip lynchet

field system The study of field systems (collections of fields) in landscape history is concerned with the size, shape and orientation of a number of fields. These are often adjacent, but may be separated by a later feature. Field systems by region Czech Republ ...

to the north of the village. The current parish church, dedicated to St Michael, stands in a roughly, rectangular churchyard near the centre of the village. The church was totally rebuilt in 1881, though the 14th-15th century font and water stoup date from the 11th century. The church was mentioned in the

Taxatio Ecclesiastica The ''Taxatio Ecclesiastica'', often referred to as the ''Taxatio Nicholai'' or just the ''Taxatio'', compiled in 1291–92 under the order of Pope Nicholas IV, is a detailed database valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of English, Welsh, an ...

of 1291. Inside it are some ornate and colorful stained glass windows originally made in Munich and which were allegedly transported by horse and cart from

St Giles' Cathedral St Giles' Cathedral ( gd, Cathair-eaglais Naomh Giles), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended ...

in Edinburgh. The church may sit on an even older monastic site although this may be more likely located at Little Treffgarne Farm. In the 19th century, ruins were found near the church including arches and walls. It was thought that this was the remains of a Cistercian monastery but is more likely to have been the site of a

hospitium Hospitium (; gr, ξενία, '' xenia'', προξενία) is the ancient Greco-Roman concept of hospitality as a divine right of the guest and a divine duty of the host. Similar or broadly equivalent customs were and are also known in other cul ...

serving pilgrims on the road to St David's. There was evidence of earlier encampments near Treffarne, but these had been leveled by the 19th century. Now bypassed by the modern A40 trunk road from Fishguard to Haverfordwest, the village originally sat on the turnpike that ran between these two towns. Until the 1970s the village was quite small with no more than 120 inhabitants but has since grown with the development of a modern estate to the west of the church. Close to the village to the west is Treffgarne Hall, erected in 1842 by Dr. Evans. It was converted into a restaurant in 1979 by executive chef Derek Stenson and his partner John Neville, former sous chef at the Dorchester Hotel, but this endeavour did not last. Close to the village to the northeast is the disused Treffgarne Quarry which provided roadstone.

Notable people

* Thomas Nicholas (1820-1879), Welsh antiquary and educator, born in Treffgarne

References

External links

Photos of Treffgarne and surrounding area on geograph.org.ukHistorical and parish information on GENUKI
{{authority control Villages in Pembrokeshire