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LLANTWIT MAJOR (Welsh Llan-Illtyd-Fawr) , a small marketSee also: town in the See also: southern See also: parliamentary division of See also: Glamorganshire, See also: South See also: Wales, about 1 m. from the See also: Bristol Channel, with a station on the See also: Barry railway, 5 M
.
S. of See also: Cowbridge
.
Pop
.
(19o1) 1113
.
About 1 m
.
N.N.W. of the town there were discovered in 1888 the remains of a large See also: Roman See also: villa within a square enclosure of about 8 acres, which has been identified as See also: part of the site of a Roman See also: settlement mentioned in Welsh writings as Caer Wrgan
.
The See also: building seemed to have been the scene of a See also: massacre, possibly the See also: work of Irish pirates in the 5th century, as some See also: forty-three human skeletons and the remains of three horses were found within its enclosure
.
Etymological reasoning have led some to suggest that the Roman station of Bovium was at Boverton, r m
.
E. of the town, but it is more likely to have been at Ewenny (2 M
.
S.E. of See also: Bridgend) or perhaps at Cowbridge
.
On the See also: sea See also: coast are two camps, one known as See also: Castle Ditches, commanding the entrance to the creek of Colhugh, once the See also: port
of Llantwit
.
In the See also: time of See also: Henry I. a small colony of Flemings settled in the
See also: district
.
The town and See also: church derive their name from St Illtyd or Iltutus, styled the " knight," a native of
See also: Brittany and a See also: great-See also: nephew of Germanus of See also: Auxerre
.
Having come under the influence of St Cadoc, See also: abbot of Llancarvan, 6 m
.
E.N.E. of Llantwit, Illtyd established at the latter place, about A.D
.
520, a monastic
See also: college which became famous as a seat of learning
.
He attracted a number of scholars to him, especially from Brittany, including Samson, archbishop of Doi, Maglorius (Samson's successor) and See also: Paul de Leon, while his Welsh students included See also: David, the See also: patron See also: saint of Wales, See also: Gildas the historian, Paulinus and Teilo
.
The college continued to flourish for several centuries, sending forth a large number of missionaries until, early in the rzth century, its revenues were appropriated to the abbey of See also: Tewkesbury by Fitzhamon, the first Norman See also: lord of Glamorgan
.
A school seems, however, to have lingered on in ,the place until it lost all its emoluments in the reign of Henry VIII
.
The See also: present church of St Illtyd is the result of a sequence of churches which have sprung from a pre-Norman edifice, almost entirely rebuilt and greatly extended in the 13th century and again partially rebuilt See also: late in the 14th century
.
It consists of an " eastern " church which (according to Professor Freeman) belonged probably to the monks, and is the only part now used for worship, a western one used as a parochial church before the dissolution, but now disused, and still farther west of this a chantry with sacristan's See also: house, now in ruins
.
The western church consists of the See also: nave of a once cruciform building, while in continuation of it was built the eastern church, consisting of chancel, nave (of great height and width but very See also: short), aisles and an embattled western tower built over the junction of the two naves
.
A partial restoration was made in 1888, and a careful and more See also: complete one in 1900-19o5
.
In the church and churchyard are preserved some early monumental remains of the See also: British church, dating from the 9th century, and some possibly from an earlier date
.
They include two See also: cross-shafts and one cross with inscriptions in debased Latin (one being to the memory of St Illtyd) and two cylindrical pillars, most of them being decorated with interlaced work
.
There are some See also: good specimens of domestic architecture of the 17th century
.
The town is situated in a fertile district and the inhabitants depend almost entirely on See also: agriculture
.
Its weekly market is mainly resorted to for its stock sales
.
St Donats castle, 2 M. to the west, was for nearly seven centuries the home of the Stradling See also: family
.
As to the Roman remains, see the See also: Athenaeum for See also: October 20 (1888), and the See also: Antiquary for See also: August (1892)
.
As to the church, see the Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd See also: ser. iv
.
31 (an article by Professor Freeman), 5th ser., v
.
409 and xvii
.
129, and 6th ser., iii
.
56; A
.
C
.
Fryer, Llantwit- Major: a Fifth Century University (1893) . (D . LL . |
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In the case of the massacre at the Romano Welsh settlement at Llantwit Major. It is possible this was carried out on the orders of Germanus during his visits to Britain to put down the Palagian Heresy. At the time of these visits there was a college at Llantwit (Cor Tewdws "College of Theodosius")this was also destroyed in the same time period. Illtud through his conections with Germanus would possibly leart of the college from him. Learning that a centre of Christian learning had been destroyed Illtud could have set out, or even sent by Germanus to put right a great wrong. S. C. Hignell.
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