Welsh Journals

Recent Excavations at Strata Florida. By R. OSBORNE JONES, Ystrad Meurig. (A little earlier than the repulse of Henry II on the Berwyn moun- tains Whitland Abbey sent out a colony which was to become the foremost monastic community in Wales-Strata Florida. Strata Florida was well embarked upon its brilliant career as the premier abbey of Wales.-J. E. LLOYD, History of Wales, Vol. II. p. 597 and p. 599.) STRATA Florida Abbey was not finally suppressed until A.D. 1540, when the last Abbot, Richard of Talley, retired on a pension of £ 40 per annum. Henry VIII had decided to suppress all the lesser monasteries-among which was Strata Florida-in 1536, and in preparation for this work six gentlemen from the county visited the monastery on March 1st, 1536 to make an inventory of all its possessions. Henry acquired so much wealth by this first suppres- sion that he determined to refound in perpetuity fifty three of the suppressed religious houses. Two of these were in Wales, Whitland Abbey and Strata Florida. The royal treasury again became impoverished, and the fifty three exempted lesser monas- teries were suppressed at the same time as the greater monasteries in 1539-40. By this time the actual number of the monks in residence with the abbot-apart from the lay brothers-was reduced to seven old men. Local tradition declares that the old monks lingered in the neighbourhood and haunted the precincts of the Abbey until their death. There is evidence that they found a refuge in their old age at Nanteos and took thither the famous healing cup, Cwpan Nanteos In course of time the monastic buildings fell into ruins, and the decay was hastened through the country people carrying away the lead from the roofs. We get a glimpse of the ruins in 1741, because a sketch of it was made by an artist called Buck to the order of the then owner of the Abbey property, Mr. Stedman. This sketch shows the north and west wall of the church standing as well as part of the north transept. The rest was a huge mass of fallen masonry covered with weeds, brambles and trees. The Cambrian Archaeological Association was formed in 1846, and held its first annual meeting at Aberystwyth in 1847. The members visited the Abbey, of which nothing could be seen except the noble arch over the west door. A small party of labourers had