The Brecon Advertiser & DIARY Talk on Talgarth


TALGARTH’S origins are lost in antiquity. The area has been settled for the last 5,000 years


and just a mile or so from the town is the oldest long cairn in Southern Britain where a small bone flute, the first musical instrument in the British Isles was found. Just south of the town, the stone castle at Castell Dinas, set within the defences of an Iron Age hillfort on the edge of the Black Mountains, is the highest medieval castle in England and Wales at over 450m. The town itself was the chief royal residence of


many daughters of King Brychan Brycheiniog. She founded the church at Talgarth in her home


kingdom before joining her brother, St Nectan, and other siblings in evangelising Northern Cerniw (Cornwall). There she founded the church of St Wenn (near


Bodmin) and chapels at St Kew and Cheristowe (in Stoke-by-Hartland, where she could be near her brother). She died on October 18, apparently murdered by


the House of Brycheiniog, although it retains no direct evidence of this. Reputedly St Gwendoline, a daughter of King Brychan, was buried on the site of the present St Gwendoline’s Church where a Celtic monastery was established in the 5th century. The church, mainly 13th to 14th century, was


granted to Brecon Priory in 1094 by Bernard of Neufmarché. The town was a borough from the early 1300s and had 73 burgesses in 1309. The Tower was built at this time, a defensive residence guarding the river crossing and town. In a later medieval period a Knight from Talgarth occupied the Hall House, now the Old Radnor Arms. For this long period Talgarth has been a centre


for trade and commerce in livestock and agricultural produce, famous for its horse fairs up to the end of the 19th century and for its sheep market to the present day. If you would like to know more, there are various


pagans on a return visit to Talgarth, but the year is unknown. She should not be confused with her contemporary, St. Wenna, Queen of Cerniw, whose church was at Morval.


October2010


3


More views of St Gwendoline’s


books and leaflets available at the Centre or contact Talgarth Historical Society on 01874 711171. There is more information on ancient history on The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust’s website: www.cpat.org.uk/projects / longer/hist land/


midwye/mwdefend.htm Saint Wenna of Talgarth Born circa. AD 463 - Welsh for Gwen; in Latin


Genuissa and English Gwen. Her name in Welsh is simply, Gwen. St Wenna (the Cornish version of her name) was one of the


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