Talking Stones of Gower

 

This month we will be looking at some memorials; our first port of call is St Cenydd Church in Llangennith, North Gower.

St Cenydd (above) dates from the 6th century and was originally a wooden construction. It is believed that Cenydd, a Christian hermit laid the foundation stone; he is buried in the chancel where we can see his gravestone which dates from the 9th century. The original wooden church was burnt down by the Danes and was replaced during the 12th century with the building that we see today which was dedicated to St Cenydd. The church was remodelled during the Victorian period.

Situated inside the church, is the effigy (below left) of a Normandy knight (Dolly Mare), who is thought to be of the de la Mere family. Buried here is the traditional singer Phil Tanner (1862 – 1950) who was known as the Gower Nightingale (below 2nd left). You can hear his wassailing song on YouTube. Also buried here is Wing Commander Anthony Eyre (below 3rd left) who was a prisoner of war who, once liberated in May 1945, took over as Commanding Officer of RAF Fairwood Common. On 16

February 1946 he took off in a Tempest (below right) but encountered engine problems, he attempted a precautionary landing at RAF St Athan but the engine stopped and the plane crashed killing Eyre.

Situated in the church, is a memorial (top left) to John Arthur Gibbs (1921-1945). John (top right) was the son of George Beynon Gibbs and Jane Ann Taylor of Highbury, Llangennith. At the outbreak of WWII we learn from the 1939 Register, that John was employed as an apprentice mason.

John did enlist and served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 578 Squadron. On 23 April 1944 the squadron flew from their base in RAF Snaith, in East Yorkshire to participate in a bombing raid on Dusseldorf. John’s aircraft, a Halifax III (below right), was brought down on the east bank of the Rhine and four crew members were killed but John and two other crew managed to parachute out. The survivors were made prisoners of war and served their time at Stalag 357 near Fallingbostel in NW Germany.

In 1945 the German forces released the prisoners westward to prevent the advancing Soviet forces from liberating the camp. A column of prisoners of war were attacked on 19 April on the outskirts of Heidekrug by RAF Typhoons who had mistaken them for enemy troops. Thirty were killed, including John. They were originally buried at Gresse in Germany but in 1948 they were reinterred in the 1939 -1945 war cemetery in Berlin (above centre right).

His photograph has been provided by his nephew Mr David Gibb

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Our second port of call is St Mary’s Church, Pennard (above left). The first church to be dedicated to St Mary was built near Pennard Castle during the 13th century, but by the 16th century this church had been abandoned following several sand floods. The second church to have been dedicated to St Mary is the one that we see today. It was built on a site of a chantry – a chapel, building or area reserved for singing. It is thought to have some elements of the original church.

Buried here are three poets, Vernon Watkins (1906-1967), Harri Webb (1920-1994) and Nigel Jenkins (1949-2014).

Vernon Watkins (memorial top right) was one of the Kardomah Gang, the group of artists, musicians, poets and writers which included Dylan Thomas, who met at the Kardomah Café in Castle Street in the 1930s.

Harri Webb (above centre) was born in Tycoch and in 1938 won a scholarship to study languages at Oxford University. He joined the Royal Navy during WWII and served as an interpreter. Post war he worked at various jobs until moving to Merthyr Tydfil and working in the Mountain Ash Library. In 1956 he published Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Rising of 1831, a pamphlet in which he retells the story of the rebellion. In 1966 he wrote the Ode to the Severn Bridge which was widely used on t shirts and the like at the time.

“Two lands at last connected

Across the waters wide

And all the tolls collected

On the English side”

Nigel Jenkins (above bottom right) was an Anglo-Welsh poet, born in Gorseinon and brought up on a farm on the Kilvrough Estate. He was a lecturer on Creative and Media Writing in Swansea University. He publish-ed several collections of poetry over the course of his life, including the first haiku collection from a Welsh poet.

Inside the church is a memorial to Thomas Penrice (left). After a distinguished career serving with the Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars, in 1820 Thomas Penrice (below) purchased Kilvrough Manor. The manor had been built by Rowland Dawkin in 1585. In 1831, Major Thomas Penrice was ordered by the Marquess of Bute, Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan to tackle civil unrest associated with the Merthyr uprising.

Richard “Dic Penderyn” Lewis and Lewis Lewis, who were leaders of the mob, were able to disarm the Yeomanry. Following this the Government of the day reorganised the Yeomanry unit.

Thomas went on to build the Gower Inn, in Parkmill and at the time of his death in 1846, was planning to restore St Mary’s Church.

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Our final port of call is St Andrew’s church in Penrice (above, left).

It is hard to imagine that during the Medieval Period, Penrice was one the largest villages of Gower, holding a market twice a week!

The construction of St Andrew’s church began during the 12th century. It was gifted by the de Penrice family to the Order of Knights Hospitaller at the end of the century and later it belonged to the hospital of St David in Swansea. King Edward VI confiscated it and reassigned to the Knights Hospitaller. In 1720 the building lost its entire roof in a huge storm, but the congregation benefitted as during the repairs a new floor and more comfortable seats were added to the interior.

Buried here is Christopher Cole (1770-1836). His headstone is an example of Celtic Revival, 1830s (above, right).

Christopher Cole (left) was born in Cornwall, he served 56 years with the British Navy, saw action during the American Revolution-ary Wars, French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Christopher is “best remembered” for his exploits in the Dutch East Indies and the capture of islands of Amboyna and Java.

He married Mary Lucy, widow of Thomas Mansel Talbot, they had no children although Mary had six from her previous marriage.

Following his retirement, Christopher now knighted was elected Member of Parliament for Glamorgan in 1817, losing his seat the following year, only to be re-elected in 1820. Keeping his seat until 1830, when he made way for his stepson, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. Christopher died in 1836 and is buried in St Andrew’s Church which is adjacent to his wife’s former family home of Penrice Castle.

 

 Copywrite - The Bay Magazine,  August 2023