Welsh Journals

been previously employed for three days to uncover part of the chancel. The Dean of Hereford discovered the piscina which is now to be seen in the north chapel of the south transept. In 1878 the Cambrian Archaelogical Association met at Lampeter and re-visited the site of the Abbey. A grant of £ 10 was made to one of the members to make further excavations. He was Mr. Stephen Williams, Architect at Rhayader, who had spent some time in the district making a survey of a proposed railway between Aberystwyth and Rhayader. This work was done in 1886, and Mr. Stephen Williams read an account at the annual meeting of the Association at Denbigh in 1887. This account of the excavations with some details of the beautiful architecture showed clearly that it was one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in Mediaeval Wales. The Association was so impressed by his report that they determined to raise a fund to carry on the excavations. Eventually the fund amounted to £ 165, and the work was done under the direction of Mr. Stephen Williams in 1888. He uncovered the foundation walls of the great church, both transepts and part of the chapter-house. One of the important features of this part of the excavation was the uncovering of the beautiful series of incised and encaustic tiles which covered the chancel, transepts, transept chapels and the eastern part of the nave of the church. The value of this discovery was enhanced by the fact that the tiles occupied the original position in which they were placed. Comparisons with similar series of tiles suggest that they were made at Droitwich in Worcestershire some time in the reign of Edward II (1307-1327). Nothing more was done for nearly half a century. The Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society was formed and paid several visits to the Abbey. Impressed by the knowledge that barely one quarter of the site had been excavated. the Society determined to appeal to H.M. Office of Works to carry on the excavations, and in 1933 had the satisfaction of seeing the work begun. The Cistercian Order of monks arose from a desire to reform the earlier Order of Clugny which had deteriorated sadly since its foundation in A.D. 910. One object aimed at by the new Order of Citeaux was uniformity. This uniformity extended even to the lay-out of the monastic buildings. Deviation from the customary building plans was permitted only where local conditions forbade the uniformity. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that a strange Cistercian monk could automatically find his way about in any Cistercian Abbey. For this reason the Office of Works staff knew exactly what to expect beneath the huge mound of debris which lay on the south side of the great church. In all Cistercian Abbeys this was the site of the cloisters. After the church itself, the cloisters was the most important part of the monastic buildings. The cloisters form a quadrangle-generally a