Abbeycwmhir

Infobox UK place
latitude = 52.3303
longitude = -3.3871
country = Wales
official_name = Abbeycwmhir
welsh_name = Abaty Cwm Hir
unitary_wales = Powys
lieutenancy_wales = Powys
constituency_westminster = Brecon & Radnorshire
post_town = KNIGHTON
postcode_area = LD
postcode_district = LD1 6**
dial_code = 01597
os_grid_reference = SO055711
population = 246 [cite web|url = http://www.powys-i.org.uk/documents/en/powys_i_stats/Census%202001/Key%20Statistics/Community%20Councils/KS_CCRAD01.pdf|title = 2001 census|accessdate = 2007-07-16]

Abbeycwmhir or Abbey Cwmhir ( _cy. Abaty Cwm Hir, "Abbey in the Long Valley") is a village in the valley of the Clywedog brook in Powys, Wales.

The Abbey

The village is named after Cwmhir Abbey, the Cistercian abbey built there in 1143. It was the largest Abbey in Wales but was never completed. Its fourteen bay nave was longer then Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedral naves and twice as long as that at St. Davids. It was a daughter house of Whitland Abbey, and constructed at the behest of three sons of Madog, the then Prince of southern Powys. The first community at Dyvanner ( _cy. Ty faenor, "Manor House") failed because of the intervention of Hugh de Mortimer, Earl of Hereford but in 1176 the Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth re-established the Abbey on land given by Cadwallon ap Madog. Llewelyn ap Gruffydd is buried near the altar in the nave. The abbey was burned by the forces of Owain Glyndwr in 1401. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in March 1537 only 3 monks lived in the abbey.cite web|url = http://www.castlewales.com/cwmhir.html|title = Abbey Cwmhir|accessdate = 2007-07-16|work = Castles of Wales]

The Abbey was slighted in 1644, during the English Civil War, although some ruins still remain. There is a memorial stone to Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales of direct descent, whose body is buried there.

Places of note

* The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the neo-Byzantine style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a grand daughter of Francis Philips who purchased the Abbeycwmhir estate in 1837 with money from the cotton-trade. It replaced a church built in 1680. Soon after the Victorian church was built, the Rev. Francis Kilvert visited.
* The "Happy Union Inn" is a grade II listed building. The age of the building is something of a mystery together with its name and unusual pub sign. The present owner is the 3rd generation of his family to run the pub.
* Abbey Cwmhir Hall: an Elizabethan-style house built in 1833 by Thomas Wilson, then owner of the Abbeycwmhir estate. It replaced a smaller Tudor-style house. It is open to the public.cite web|url = http://www.abbeycwmhir.com/|title = Abbey Cwmhir Hall|accessdate = 2007-08-17|work = Hall Website]

See also

*Glyndwr's Way

References

External links

* [http://www.abbeycwmhir.org.uk/ Village website]