<< Our Photo Pages >> St Martin's Church (Cwmyoy) - Ancient Cross in Wales in Monmouthshire
Submitted by Sunny100 on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 Page Views: 11905
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: St Martin's Church (Cwmyoy) Alternative Name: The Cwmyoy CrossCountry: Wales
NOTE: This site is 0.254 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Monmouthshire Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Crickhowell Nearest Village: Llanvihangel Crucorney
Map Ref: SO29902340
Latitude: 51.904710N Longitude: 3.020341W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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St Martin's is a difficult church to find on narrow country lanes, 7 miles north of Abergavenny and 4 miles south of Llanthony, in the Vale of Ewyas, and close to the River Honddu. St Martin's at Cwmyoy (Cwm-iou) is situated at the end of one of these country lanes, just a little east of Neuadd and on the southern edge of Hatteral Hill. Please note there is a parking space but only for one car at the most. One good thing about this church is that it is open daily.
The eminent Monmouthshire antiquarian J.M.Lewis mentions the cross in his recent work 'The Cwmyoy Crucifix' Monmouthshire Antiquary no 16, p 47-50, 2000.
At the Reformation the cross was buried in the churchyard for safety, but Henry VIII's soldiers never came to Cwmyoy because of the sheer remoteness of the place, so the cross was eventually dug up again and brought into the church. However, in recent times it was stolen from the church and taken to London. By good fortune it was spotted in an antique shop in the capital and then returned to the church again, alas without its stepped base. It is now set into a square-shaped lump of stone which bears an inscription. Also in the church a grave-slab of the 13th century with incised cross and foliation.
You will, by now, have noticed that the church leans at different angles due to subsidence in the hillside; the tower in particular leans at an even crazier angle. The church is thought to be the most crooked in Britain - in building only, that is! Legend says that the southern side of Hatteral Hill was rent by an earthquake at the time of Christ's crucifixion triggering a landslide - a huge gash can still be seen in the hillside at the back of the church. The hillside is said to be "yoke-shaped" - hence the name Cwmyoy - 'Valley of the Yoke'.
In the churchyard at the north-west corner stands a modern day purplish coloured pillar-stone which marks the grave of the racing driver Arthur Gill (d 2008).
Note: Something to highlight the vast resource of Christianised standing stones and ancient (mostly very ancient) crosses that a small but dedicated group of our contributors have been working on for some years
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.