Asleep,
Cadoc dreamed that God told him he would show him the place
to build the church. This church would have been constructed
from timber from the surrounding forest, and reeds and
bullrushes from the swamp for the roof. As students flocked
to Cadoc, the countryside changed: ditches dug to drain the
swamp, paths constructed, land reclaimed for farming,
workshops and forges.
Ray Fenn gave a description of the probable appearence of
the monastery. "The general buildings were of wood, wattle
and mud. The monks lived in individual cells and met
regularly in the Abbot's Chapel for worship. There were
separate cells for abbots, priests, doctors, stewards,
gardeners and grave-diggers.
There was a guest cell, which must have been full
frequently, because hospitality was one of the prime virtues
of the community. The monks worked with their hands,
cultivating the surrounding land, but it was the curriculum
of art, music, mathematics, rhetoric and scripture that gave
the spiritual force which existed among the students."
By the time of the arrival of the Normans, Llancarfan had
grown in size, wealth and influence and had eclipsed
Llantwit Major. But like Llantwit, the Normans were not
impressed with its "clas" system (meaning cloister, the name
given to a mother church run by canons under an abbot), so
it was dissolved, the church was reduced in status to a
parish church and the revenues given to St.Peter's of
Gloucester, and subsequently in 1106 to tewkesbury Abbey.
The principal church of St.Cadoc, at Llancarfan, is
imposing, squarely massive and very much in the tradition of
the buildings constructed on the sites of the "clas"
churches . The actual site of the monastery has not been
discovered but it is a reasonable assumption that the
present church may well occupy that site, especially in view
of the unusually large churchyard.
The church is mainly Norman in origin, comprising that
peculiarly Welsh feature of ecclesiastical architecture, the
double nave. In the 13th century the chancel was re-built,
the south aisle widened and extended and the tower
reconstructed. |
