Cadfan's Church

Meryl Gover

Description

St Cadfan's Church, Tywyn, is said to be "as remarkable a church as any in Wales, despite the ravages of time" (Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd). Its unadorned Romanesque arches, and the Cadfan Stone on which is carved the oldest known written Welsh, draw visitors from all over the world. But what link does the church have with Edward I, or Henry VIII, or John Milton? Why was the richest church in Merioneth reduced to begging for money? How and why has the church changed in appearance over the centuries? These and many more questions are answered in this book which traces the history of St Cadfan's Church for 1500 years. Modern and 19th century photographs, together with computer simulations, help to see changes which have occurred. The book also considers some aspects of life in the town of Tywyn and the wider church as they have affected St Cadfan's Church.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History of Europe
• North Wales

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 mai 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781784629861
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

CADFAN’S CHURCH
A History with Digressions
Cantref Meirionydd
CADFAN’S CHURCH
A History with Digressions
Meryl Gover
Copyright © 2015 Meryl Gover
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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To the Glory of God and in joyful remembrance of all those who, over the centuries, have worshipped in the areas visited by Cadfan and his followers.
Church of fair Cadfan, brilliant to behold, Church of faith and devotion and belief and communion As though it had been fashioned by God Himself.
Canu Cadfan, Llewellyn Fardd I
The publication of this book has been partially funded by a grant of £1000 from the Peter Saunders Trust, Tywyn, whose support is much appreciated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
By permission of Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/the National Library of Wales, extracts from Bangor Diocesan and Welsh Church Council records and from the Aberystwyth Observer are quoted in this book.
I also acknowledge, with gratitude, permission from the Editors of the Cambrian News and Archaeologica Cambrensis to include quotations from their publications.
Thanks
This could not have been written without the help of a number of people and institutions.
My thanks are due to the staff of Tywyn Library for early suggestions and to Gwynedd Libraries for supplying a range of books. The History of Merioneth (Volumes 1 & 2) , produced by the Merioneth Historical and Record Society, were invaluable both for the information they contained and for their pointers to a wide range of references. The National Library of Wales (NLW), and especially the staff in the South Reading Room, kept me supplied with many original sources, and the NLW Welsh Journals Online and Welsh Newspapers Online were very helpful.
Much of the information on the later history of the church came from the church safe where, thankfully, a box full of documents had not been discarded as out of date. Its contents have now been transferred to the Merioneth Records Office, Dolgellau, which also holds the past church registers and other interesting sidelights on life in Tywyn.
I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Professor Catherine McKenna of Harvard University for allowing me to include her translation of Canu Cadfan. My thanks also to Professor Nancy Edwards of the University of Bangor and to J. Potter for emailing me the relevant portions of their books before publication.
I should particularly like to thank my brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Lesley Gover, for their detailed study of the book, identifying inconsistencies and assumptions, correcting errors and making suggestions for rewording. Their help has been invaluable. Thanks, also, to Sue Whitehouse for proof-reading the book. All remaining errors, whether of fact or expression, are all my own.
CONTENTS
1 – The Coming of Cadfan
The story
The evidence
Transport
Migration
Geography
Infrastructure
Society and housing
Genealogy and names
Dates
2 – The Dark Ages
Monasteries
The church and its surroundings
Nawdd
Clas
Evidence for Tywyn’s status
3 – Into a New Millennium
The stone church
The altars
Morfran, Abbot of Tywyn
Giraldus Cambrensis
Boundaries and organisation
Canu Cadfan
4 – Conflict and Change
The church at Tywyn
Troubled times and Castell y Bere
The town of Tywyn
Travels of an archbishop
Castell y Bere again
More trouble
5 – The 14th and 15th Centuries
The church in the 14th century
The king’s taxes
The effigies
The Black Death
Absentee rectors
6 – The Beginnings of the Reformation
Henry VIII, Patron of Tywyn Church
The break with Rome
An elderly rector
A bishop’s task
A troublesome rector
Change in the church
Edward VI
7 – A Time of Changes
Mary
Elizabeth
Welsh services for Wales
Diocesan reports
The Welsh Bible
John Hughes and the Commonwealth
8 – The Restoration
The 1662 Prayer Book
Extracts from “an Old Book”
Disaster
The Royal Brief
9 – Churchwardens and their Accounts
The Churchwardens’ Accounts Book
Poor Relief
The Church Rate
Services and collections
10 – Tywyn Church in the 1700s
Edward Morgan
The West Tower
Jeremiah Griffith
A Bishop’s Visitation
The Terrier
Griffith’s successors
A link with John Milton
11 – Tithes, Tywyn and My Lords of Lichfield (1690-1900)
Great and small tithes
Tithes of absentee rectors
The Gilbert family as lessees
A disagreement between bishops
The Edwards family as lessees
The value of the tithes
Money payments
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners
The Tithe Wars
12 – From 1770 to 1870
The town in the early 19th century
The curates of Tywyn’s chapels
The church in 1839
Griffith Evans, farmer’s son
Tywyn in the late 1840s
Owen Jones
The coming of the Kettle family
Owen Jones in debt
13 – Titus Lewis
The church in the 1860s
The closure of the churchyard
Preparing for restoration
The chancel inspection
A plan for restoration
Dissension and its solution
Covering the cost
The work in progress
St Matthew’s Church, Bryncrug
A new organ
14 – The Towyn-on-Sea and Merioneth County Times
15 – David Pugh
Neighbour problems
Parochialia
Widening the road
Lighting and heating
Church improvements
War, death and remembrance
The cost of a curate
Church finances
The vicar’s historical research
16 – Disestablishment (1689-1950)
Church and chapel
A Royal Commission
Disestablishment and disendowment
17 – The Mid-20th Century
Canon Henry Thomas
Buildings and fabric maintenance
The Second World War
Post-war problems
The Sunday School
Tuddyd Owen
18 – Forty Years: 1973-2013
The Quota
Major repairs
Church House
Parishes and people
Canon Martin Riley
The vacancy
St Matthew’s Church, Bryncrug
Repairs and improvements
Richard Vroom
Redevelopment
Full Circle
Appendix A – The Building
Appendix B – The Mediaeval Inscribed Stones
Appendix C – The Music
Appendix D – School and Church
Appendix E – Incumbents
Appendix F – Canu Cadfan
General Notes and Glossary
Bibliography
Endnotes to Chapters
1. THE COMING OF CADFAN
THE STORY
It was not a big estuary. Not like the great estuaries of the Mawddach to the north and the Dyfi to the south. Its mouth was south of its present position and may have been quite wide, as the great shingle bank that formed it had not yet spread far north. Within the estuary, beyond Craig y Deryn, water stretched upstream at high tide but the strength of the current was much less than that of the great estuaries which carried so much more water.
On either side the land rose quite steeply for a few dozen yards before levelling off to provide a wide area for crops; the north bank was protected from the bitter north winds by the hills behind. Uncultivated areas were covered by scrubby bush and stunted trees, kept small by the salty west wind. There was little of the forests of inland areas. The main channel of the river passed close to the north bank at all stages of the tide and provided a good place to bring in the fishing boats and coastal traders. Ffordd Ddu, an ancient trackway running over the hill from Llwyngwril, came down to the water here and, on the hill behind, an old hill fort showed that the area had been inhabited for many centuries 1 .
On the south side of the estuary the river was divided into several small channels and there was less water except towards high tide. Instead, sand bars spread over that part of the estuary. There were channels to the shore navigable by the fishing boats but it was not so easy to reach as the north bank. On the other hand, there was much more flat land suitable for cultivation stretching south around the edge of the hill and east into the valley of the River Matthew 2 .
Fish from the sea and river, well watered but not marshy level ground for crops, the forest for wood; the two shores of the Dysynni provided a better place to live than many inland settlements.
Far offshore the trading ships passed, some from as far away as Lyons and even the Eastern Mediterranean 3 . Having come so far they needed rich areas with which to trade their goods, places like eastern Ireland, South Wales and Anglesey with its fertile croplands. The shores of Cardigan Bay had little to offer them and they kept well out at sea for fear of the lee shore. Some goods and passengers for this area might have come with them from the continent but they would have been put ashore in South Wales to find one of the smaller vessels that traded along the coast to complete their journey. The arrival of a coastal trader at the northern landing of the Dysynni was a time of excitement, of greeting old friends, wondering at travellers, trading for the goods on the ship.
It was here, in the spring 4 , about 516 AD, that Cadfan and his companions arrived. Seeking solitude, a “desert place”, they may even have been told, “You need the sandy shore, the tywyn. ” Leaving the north shore they were taken with their belongings in a small fishing boat across the estuary, up a channel through the sandbanks to a small mound ri