Remains of Llangewydd Church & Churchyard Laleston The standing stones are thought to be the remains of an entrance to the
Medieval 11th century church yard of St Cewydd's Church. The two
stones are all that remains of the medieval church and village of Llangewydd.
Two carved ‘Celtic’ crosses were recovered from the area and are now on show
at the National Museum. There are a few plain standing stones in the hedge
to the left of the two in the picture and many piles of stones from
the buildings around the fields perimeter. There is no public access to the
field as the land is now farmed. Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs) have
statutory protection.
In the early twelfth century the
reformed Cistercians religious order spread from France across Europe,
reaching Wales in 1131. Part of their ethos was that they wanted to farm
their own land by the sweat of their brows. They preferred to settle on
unused land and bring it under cultivation themselves. But there was very
little unused land in England and Wales, but when they were given land which
was already being farmed by tenant's, they would use a combination of
persuasion or moral blackmail to remove the tenant farmers.
The Cistercian monks of Margam were given the land around Llangewydd in the
middle of the twelfth century and within fifty years they had removed the
church and the little settlement around it. It is said that in later years
the land was then sold on to a local farm.
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