Welsh Journals

Almost certainly, the Normans had a hand in its reconstruction. One of the earliest acts of Henry de Newburgh, eari of Warwick, (in all likelihood the first Norman lord of Gower), was to issue, early in the twelfth century, a charter to the abbey of St. Taurin at Evreux in Normandy. It granted to the French monastery for the souls of his lord, King William, and Queen Matilda and of de Newburgh himself, the church of St. Kenetus (i.e. Cenydd) and land for two ploughs in the vicinity of that church, and the tithe of the vill of Llanguene (namely Llangenydd-and interestingly enough that is the way it is still pronounced by natives of the village) and a suitable spot for a mill, and enough of his wood for all their necessities, and the tithe of all his rents and his hunting and fishing, and of all his demesne, and the churches of Taurin (probably Knelston) and Pennart, with the tithes and the church of the Isle (the little chapel on Burry Holm), free of all claim." The French monastery sent over some of its monks to take possession and to establish a daughter priory. Henry de Newburgh was only one of the many Norman lords in South Wales who were thus transferring the possessions of ancient Welsh churches to monasteries in England or on the Continent. They were inspired partly by feelings of filial piety for mother church, but also by the more mundane consideration that the alien priory, no less than the castle and the borough, was an instrument of conquest. It was uncommonly satisfying to ensure security in both worlds by generosity at other people's expense. The priory established at Llangenydd remained a small and unpretentious one. Its monks were too few to have had much in the way of conventual buildings, though they would probably have had a small cloister, a refectory, a dormitory, and various outbuildings. Nearly all traces of these have now disappeared. Only the priory church, which served also as the parish church, remains intact. With its unusual saddleback tower, it is the largest of Gower churches and there may still be seen that curious stone slab which local lore insists is Cenydd's tombstone. What little is known of its history in the Middle Ages suggests that it enjoyed little of that leisured tranquillity we usually associate with mediaeval cloisters. For nearly two centuries, its handful of monks must have gone in almost daily dread of the neighbouring Welshry," who were always prone to revolt against their foreign overlords and to attack Norman knight and trader and monk alike. When danger from the Welsh need no longer alarm them very greatly, the unfortunate inmates of the priory were beset by fresh vexations arising from the loss of Normandy by the English crown and the endemic wars between France and England. In time of war, the possessions of those alien priories which acknowledged French monasteries as their mother houses were not unnaturally seized by the king. Such confiscation hit them hard. The register of the bishop of St. David's of 1399 has a dismal tale to tell of the alien