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Abbeycwmhir or Abbey Cwmhir ( cy, Abaty Cwm Hir, "Abbey in the Long Valley") is a village and community in the valley of the Nant Clywedog in
The village is named after
* The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the Neo-Byzantine style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a grand daughter of Francis Philips, who purchased the Abbeycwmhir estate in 1837 with money from the cotton trade. It replaced a church built in 1680. Soon after the Victorian church was built, the Francis Kilvert visited.
* The Happy Union Inn is a
Village website
{{authority control Communities in Powys Villages in Powys Burial sites of the House of Aberffraw
Radnorshire
, HQ = Presteigne
, Government = Radnorshire County Council (1889–1974) Radnorshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin =
, Status = historic county, administrative county
, Start ...
, Powys, Wales. The community includes the hamlet of Bwlch-y-sarnau.
The Abbey
The village is named after Cwmhir Abbey
Cwmhir Abbey ( cy, Abaty Cwm Hir), near Llandrindod Wells in Powys, is a Welsh Cistercian monastery founded in 1176 by Cadwallon ap Madog. A spurious tale was later recorded that the abbey was founded in 1143 by Meredudd ap Maelgwn at Ty-faenor ...
, the Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
abbey built there in 1143. It was the largest Abbey in Wales, but was never completed. Its fourteen bay nave was longer than Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buildi ...
naves and twice as long as that at St. Davids. It was a daughter house of Whitland Abbey, and constructed at the behest of three sons of Madog
Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd (also spelled Madog) was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492.
According to the story, he was a son of Owain Gwyned ...
, the then Prince of southern Powys. The first community at Dyvanner ( cy, Ty faenor, "Manor House") failed because of the intervention of Hugh de Mortimer, Earl of Hereford but in 1176 the Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth re-established the Abbey on land given by Cadwallon ap Madog
Cadwallon ap Madog was the son of Madog ab Idnerth who had died in 1140, while Idnerth was a grandson of Elystan Glodrydd who had died in around 1010 and had founded a dynasty in the Middle Marches of Wales, in the area known as Rhwng Gwy a Hafren ...
. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd is buried near the altar in the nave. The abbey was burned by the forces of Owain Glyndŵr
Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
in 1401. At the dissolution of the monasteries in March 1537 only three monks lived in the abbey.
The Abbey was slighted in 1644, during the English Civil War, although some ruins still remain. There is a memorial stone to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales of direct descent, whose body is buried there.
Places of note
* The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the Neo-Byzantine style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a grand daughter of Francis Philips, who purchased the Abbeycwmhir estate in 1837 with money from the cotton trade. It replaced a church built in 1680. Soon after the Victorian church was built, the Francis Kilvert visited.
* The Happy Union Inn is a Grade II
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 ...
listed building. The age of the building is unknown. The present owner is the 3rd generation of his family to run the pub.
* Abbey Cwmhir Hall is a Georgian style house built in 1833 by Thomas Wilson Thomas Wilson, Tom Wilson or Tommy Wilson may refer to:
Actors
* Thomas F. Wilson (born 1959), American actor most famous for his role of Biff Tannen in the ''Back to the Future'' trilogy
*Tom Wilson (actor) (1880–1965), American actor
*Dan Gre ...
, a London lawyer who had purchased the 3000 acre Abbeycwmhir estate. It is open to the public.
See also
* Glyndŵr's WayReferences
External links
Village website
{{authority control Communities in Powys Villages in Powys Burial sites of the House of Aberffraw