The north tends to have more sheep and traditional employment, is home to the area's cockle industry, non-conformist chapels and tends to vote Labour. Of course, these are generalisations but ones that help us to understand the various religious buildings that we can find there.
Mumbles, which sits on the south-eastern edge of the peninsula contains All Saints, a major Church-in-Wales church, Mumbles Methodist Church, which is a Grade II listed building dating back to the mid-18th-century Methodist revival under John Wesley and Our Lady Star of the Sea, a Catholic church as well as a number of other places of worship of all denominations.
Mumbles, which sits on the south-eastern edge of the peninsula contains All Saints, a major Church-in-Wales church, Mumbles Methodist Church, which is a Grade II listed building dating back to the mid-18th-century Methodist revival under John Wesley and Our Lady Star of the Sea, a Catholic church as well as a number of other places of worship of all denominations.
In line with the churches featured below, All Saints also has a famous connection, containing the grave of Thomas Bowdler.
This site lists ten fascinating churches on the peninsula that are worth visiting. It's author tells us that most of them are small, dating from the early medieval (12th and 13th centuries) period, and were built in an area under Anglo-Norman rather than Welsh control.
The author describes St Cadoc Church in Cheriton (pictured above) as the 'humble cathedral of Gower':
This fine 14th-century church may well have been built to replace a church at nearby Landimore, which would have been prone to flooding from the adjacent saltmarshes of the Loughor estuary. It’s built on much higher ground, and serves a tiny village a mile or two east of Llanmadoc, more on which later in the article.
The church is as humble and simple as most other Gower churches. Its one difference is its central tower, between the nave and the chancel. In cathedrals and larger churches transepts would be built to the north and south, but this wasn’t the case at Cheriton.
The church is dedicated to St Cadoc, one of the most prominent early Welsh saints, who founded an important monastery at Llancarfan, 40 miles to the east in the Vale of Glamorgan. What we see today was largely built in the Early English Gothic style, with typical narrow lancet windows. It was restored from 1875 onwards under the auspices of the Rector, Reverend J D Davies, who also served the neighbouring village of Llanmadoc.
Those with an interest in medical history may be intrigued to know that Sigmund Freud’s biographer, Ernest Jones, is buried in Cheriton churchyard. A psychoanalyst himself, he was born in. nearby Gowerton and had a holiday home just up the road in Llanmadoc.
St Mary's Church in Pennard (above) is also a replacement for an earlier, abandoned church:
The original was close to Pennard Castle, overlooking nearby Three Cliffs Bay, which eventually succumbed to the encroaching sand dunes which still threaten what is left of the castle.
The battlemented west tower is tiny, almost a miniature, and anyone climbing it would have to be a lot smaller and slimmer than me to do so!
Inside, the most noticeable feature is the wooden gallery at the west end of the church, with a row of pews either side. This is where musicians would perform in times gone by. There is also a memorial tablet to Vernon Watkins, a renowned Gower poet, and contemporary and friend of Dylan Thomas. His remarkable wife Gwen, who recently passed away aged 101, was one of the Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War Two.
Last, but not least for this post, there is St Mary's Church in Rhossili, another building linked to a well-known historical person:
It’s a simple medieval church with a saddleback tower, a type common throughout South Wales. It replaced an earlier church built at a lower level closer to the beach, long since lost to the sand dunes.
The oldest part of the church is the late Romanesque south doorway, the sole survivor from this period on Gower. There is also a lepers’ window in the chancel, where sufferers of the disease could observe the service being conducted from outside.
Rhossili Church also attracts visitors keen to see the wall memorial to Petty Officer Edgar Evans, who was born in the village in 1876. He was one of four men who accompanied Captain Robert Falcon Scott in his expedition to the South Pole, which they reached in January 1912, a few weeks after Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his expedition arrived there. He died in the expedition tent, but his body was never found. The plaque was commissioned by his widow Lois.
I propose to do more posts on these churches and chapels over the next few weeks. Another site that may be worth looking at for information is here.
This site lists ten fascinating churches on the peninsula that are worth visiting. It's author tells us that most of them are small, dating from the early medieval (12th and 13th centuries) period, and were built in an area under Anglo-Norman rather than Welsh control.
The author describes St Cadoc Church in Cheriton (pictured above) as the 'humble cathedral of Gower':
This fine 14th-century church may well have been built to replace a church at nearby Landimore, which would have been prone to flooding from the adjacent saltmarshes of the Loughor estuary. It’s built on much higher ground, and serves a tiny village a mile or two east of Llanmadoc, more on which later in the article.
The church is as humble and simple as most other Gower churches. Its one difference is its central tower, between the nave and the chancel. In cathedrals and larger churches transepts would be built to the north and south, but this wasn’t the case at Cheriton.
The church is dedicated to St Cadoc, one of the most prominent early Welsh saints, who founded an important monastery at Llancarfan, 40 miles to the east in the Vale of Glamorgan. What we see today was largely built in the Early English Gothic style, with typical narrow lancet windows. It was restored from 1875 onwards under the auspices of the Rector, Reverend J D Davies, who also served the neighbouring village of Llanmadoc.
Those with an interest in medical history may be intrigued to know that Sigmund Freud’s biographer, Ernest Jones, is buried in Cheriton churchyard. A psychoanalyst himself, he was born in. nearby Gowerton and had a holiday home just up the road in Llanmadoc.
The original was close to Pennard Castle, overlooking nearby Three Cliffs Bay, which eventually succumbed to the encroaching sand dunes which still threaten what is left of the castle.
The battlemented west tower is tiny, almost a miniature, and anyone climbing it would have to be a lot smaller and slimmer than me to do so!
Inside, the most noticeable feature is the wooden gallery at the west end of the church, with a row of pews either side. This is where musicians would perform in times gone by. There is also a memorial tablet to Vernon Watkins, a renowned Gower poet, and contemporary and friend of Dylan Thomas. His remarkable wife Gwen, who recently passed away aged 101, was one of the Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War Two.
It’s a simple medieval church with a saddleback tower, a type common throughout South Wales. It replaced an earlier church built at a lower level closer to the beach, long since lost to the sand dunes.
The oldest part of the church is the late Romanesque south doorway, the sole survivor from this period on Gower. There is also a lepers’ window in the chancel, where sufferers of the disease could observe the service being conducted from outside.
Rhossili Church also attracts visitors keen to see the wall memorial to Petty Officer Edgar Evans, who was born in the village in 1876. He was one of four men who accompanied Captain Robert Falcon Scott in his expedition to the South Pole, which they reached in January 1912, a few weeks after Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his expedition arrived there. He died in the expedition tent, but his body was never found. The plaque was commissioned by his widow Lois.
I propose to do more posts on these churches and chapels over the next few weeks. Another site that may be worth looking at for information is here.
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