Welsh Journals

LLANFRYNACH, near Cowbridge (SS 991 766) Trial excavations undertaken by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeol- ogical Trust in Llanfrynach churchyard prior to landscaping work revealed part of a medieval building complex. Building 1 consisted of at least two rooms, but only a small part of it could be examined owing to the proximity of graves; it would have extended to within a few metres of the east end of the chancel of St Brynach's church. One room contained a small hearth consisting of vertically set sandstone slabs, with a doorway leading to a narrow cobbled alleyway. The doorway had first been reduced in width by the insertion of one side of blocking material which included part of a cylindrical column from an earlier structure, and this new entrance was embellished with well-dressed jambs; later the doorway had been completely blocked. Both rooms had clay floors, and traces of plaster still adhered to the walls. On the opposite side of the alleyway was the doorway into Building 2, whose walls differed from those of Building 1 in being clay-bonded rather than mortared, although they were of a similar thickness and had also been plastered. An internal partition wall had apparently been partially dismantled towards the end of the period of the building's use for the insertion of a corn-drying oven, whose fabric also included re-used carved masonry. To the north were the remains of further walls whose significance was hard to ascertain without examination of a more extensive area. Nearby, two slabs capped the sump of a large soakaway pit. The dating evidence suggested that the excavated buildings were erected at about the same date as the present church (c. 1300), although the re-use of building material may well indicate the presence of an earlier church on the site. Three silver pennies of Henry VI from the horizon between the floor of Building 1 and the overlying rubble suggested that the buildings fell out of use during the mid-fifteenth century. Amongst the finds were fragments of roofing material consisting of slate, sandstone slabs, and ceramic ridge-tiles. It is difficult to be certain what these excavated remains represent. Building 1, with its hearth, was apparently residential, whilst the corn-dryer in Building 2, together with several fragments of a