Kilgwrrwg (Welsh: Cilgwrrwg) is a rural parish in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom. It is located 7 miles (11 km) north west of Chepstow and 7 miles (11 km) south east of Usk in a network of country lanes running through the rolling hills below the Trellech ridge.[1]
History
The Welsh placename element cil means a corner, or retreat, usually in a religious context, and the settlement name is suggestive of its Celtic Christian origins.[2] In 1811 the parish had a population of 133, and in 1831 it had a population of 113 and 26 houses.[3][4][5] Historically the parish was part of the Hundred of Raglan and was endowed by the Diocese of Llandaff.[4]
The Church of the Holy Cross at Kilgwrrwg is one of the most remote parish churches in the UK still in regular use.[7] It can only be reached by crossing two fields and a stream from the nearest house.
The church is surrounded by a partly curved churchyard, suggesting a Celtic foundation, and has been described as "the most perfect example of an early Christian site".[2] It is thought to have been referred to indirectly in a charter of about 722, cited in the Book of Llandaff.[2] According to local legend, the location of the church was determined when a pair of heifers, yoked together, were left to wander, and came to rest on a small mound, signifying that the place was divinely ordained for a church to be built there.[7]
The churchyard contains a plain short-armed stone cross, impossible to date accurately but thought by some to be pre-Norman[2] and described by others as mediaeval.[8] There is also a stone carving of a head, again thought to be pre-Norman and sometimes described as a female fertility figure,[7] placed in the wall.[2] The church is built of Old Red Sandstone. It contains some Early English architectural features, including the walls and a window in the nave.[8]
By the early nineteenth century, the building was partly ruined and used as a livestock shelter.[7] According to the local schoolteacher and philanthropist James Davies of Devauden,[9]
"...the little church was in decay; rain and snow penetrated through the roof into the body of the building, and a neighbouring farmer folded his sheep within the walls of God's house. On twelve Sundays in the year, and on those only, was public worship performed in that church; and on those occasions the accumulated filth of sheep and cattle was shovelled out the day before."
Davies encouraged the local residents to pay for the re-roofing of the church.[9] It was further restored by John Prichard around 1871, and a porch, bellcote and windows were added at that time.[8][10] Further restoration work was carried out in 1989/90.[8] It is a Grade II* listed building.[11]
Other buildings
Kilgwrrwg House is a hall house of the early sixteenth century, with a massive chimney stack of later date. The house is of architectural and historical interest.[12]
The small hamlet of Kilgwrrwg Common is located about one mile from the church. Great Kilgwrrwg Farm is also located in the vicinity.[13]
References
^Botanical Society of the British Isles (1902). Report for 1879-1947. p. 357. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
^ abcdeZaluckyj, Sarah; Zaluckyj, John (2006). The Celtic Christian Sites of the Central and Southern Marches. Hereford: Logaston Press. pp. 333–334. ISBN1-904396-57-7.
