Walk home from Llanfynydd

I needed a walk, so got my husband to drop me off at our neighbouring village of Llanfynydd when we had got the paper.  Here is St Egwad's church, which sits in a curvilinear churchyard.  This has been a religious site for many centuries and it is mentioned in 1331 as a possession of St Davids as a prebend of the collegiate church at Abergwili.  However, the site of the earliest church was further up the valley of the Saanan river. It has an octagonal font which dates to about 1500 and was found in 1917 in the garden of a neighbouring property, being used as a flowerpot!  The tower dates to about 1400 and has a spiral staircase, and the nave and the chancel have a squint which dates to about 1500.  The church was restored in 1861, and all parts showed evidence of a fire at an earlier date.  Many thanks to Coflein for this information.  Unfortunately the church was locked so I could take internal photos.

There was a wind farm proposed in 2004, which had the villagers up in arms and for one week Llanfynydd was renamed in protest :

Llanhyfryddawellehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyllafnauole ("lovely silent church, ancient place of the rare kite under wretched threat from misplaced blades")  - just don't ask me to say it for you!!

Nantgwilw, where William Davies lived in the late 18th and early 19th C, is about 2 miles up the valley from our bridge.  I'll have to wander up that way next week and take a photo.  For many years it was derelict but has recently been sold, renovated and is now a home again.

I think this reads "Thomas, son of Daniel and ??Evans."  If I am right, it looks like he was "aged 1 day" bless him.  They must have been broken-hearted.

There was a Moses family living here around 1900.  Looking at the dates, quite possibly this one, who then moved up to Waunfawr, Llanfynydd.  Giving the address on gravestones, of where folk lived, is a very common Welsh habit.  Great for family historians.

The village war memorial stands opposite the church.  By then, Nantgwilw had the Jones family living in it and they lost their son Henry . . .

Just past the church, there is a bridge over the River Saanan and the remaining pub in the village which is still open.

Up a little hill and this cottage has always delighted me because of the stable it has attached at the far end . . .

Here is what used to be the Farmers' Arms pub, now a private residence to a local potter.  Those photos I took back at the end of July of various potters' work was displayed in this house.

On the far left  of the Chapel, is the room where our patchwork was displayed and we sat and worked on our quilts when people came by on the Craft Trail.

The chapel has had quite a long history, and to one side of it, what remains of an even earlier chapel (I think!) remains . . .  Unfortunately I can't find anything about its dating on line.

The steep hill which encloses the village and keeps the very worst of the Westerly storms at bay.

At the top of the hill, looking across beyond our house to the properties along "Top o'Bank". 

Across the valley towards our house.

Looking more southwards down the valley.

At the bottom of the long steep hill, I stopped to take this photo looking up the valley towards Brechfa.

Devil's Bit Scabious .

Mental blank and can't find it in Roger Phillips either.  Will get back to you on this . . .  Lady's Bedstraw?

Late flowering Umbellifer . . .

Finally, our river looking upstream, with the first little tentative rafts of leaves making their way downstream . . .