thumb|Trellech viewed from [[Beacon Hill, Monmouthshire|Beacon Hill]]

Trellech (occasionally spelt Trelech, Treleck or Trelleck; ) is a village and parish in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales. Located south of Monmouth and north-north-west of Tintern, Trellech lies on a plateau above the Wye Valley on the southern fringes of of woodland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three Bronze Age standing stones are situated in the village, known as Harold's Stones, which overlook the historic church of St Nicholas, a Grade I listed building.

Although a relatively small village in modern times, it was one of the largest towns in Wales in the 13th century, and is now a site of archaeological interest to determine its extent and role at that time. The village is designated as a conservation area.

There are four nature reserves nearby; New Grove Flower Meadow, noted for its orchids, and Trellech Beacon are both owned by Gwent Wildlife Trust while Cleddon Bog and Croes Robert Wood are both SSSIs.

Etymology

It is thought that the Welsh name Tryleg probably means 'conspicuous stone' and derives from the intensifying prefix try- and *lleg, an unrecorded variant of the common noun llech 'stone, slab'. If so, the name probably refers to a large stone that once stood on a mound about a mile-and-a-half north of the village. Historical forms of the name vary between Try-, Tri- and Tre-. It is likely that the three standing stones known as Harold's Stones influenced those forms that begin with Tri- (Welsh tri 'three'). Another Welsh noun tre(f) 'settlement, town' has probably influenced forms that begin with Tre-. The noun llech, mentioned above, has also influenced various forms of the name. The <ll> in the English form Trellech is given its English pronunciation (not as Welsh Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives|). Likewise, the final <ch> is pronounced as not as Welsh Voiceless uvular fricative|.

The village is noteworthy because of the variety of different modern spellings of the name. Historically, up to 30 different variations of the name have been recorded, of which four are still commonly used. On each of the three roads entering the village, signs give a different spelling: Trellech, Trelleck and Trelech.

History

Trellech was one of the major towns of medieval Wales, the remains of which have been subject to archaeological excavations which have been sustained over many years and which continue today. It is most likely that the town was established by the De Clare family specifically for the exploitation of local supplies of iron ore from the Forest of Dean, and charcoal produced in the surrounding woodlands, to provide weapons, armour and iron work for their military advances in Wales, including the building of Caerphilly Castle. By 1288 there were 378 burgage plots recorded in Trellech, which would have made it bigger than Cardiff or Chepstow at the time. Trellech was largely destroyed in 1291 as a result of a raid following a dispute over alleged deer poaching. The Black Death struck in 1340 and again in 1350. Subsequently, the ravages of Owain Glyndŵr and his men in the early 15th century further reduced the prosperity and in consequence the importance of Trellech.

Archaeological investigations

Archaeological investigations at Trellech have been led since the early 1990s by the South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Wales, Newport. There is currently some dispute over the layout and development of the medieval town and its environs. In 2005, Stuart Wilson bought a field in which, he was convinced, were remains of the lost medieval town. Wilson had previously broken into sites and undermined the work of other archaeologists in the area, claiming he "once sneaked onto Howell's dig site to prove an ancient wall the professor had uncovered was really a modern field drain." [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/01/17/a-militant-archaeologist-is-famous-for-finding-a-lost-city-some-say-he-just-stole-the-credit/].This site had first been identified as of potential interest by (the unrelated) Julia Wilson, in 1998.

Stuart Wilson's interest in this field and the possibility that his hunch might be correct was the subject of a 30-minute BBC Radio 4 documentary, presented by the archaeologist Francis Pryor, and entitled The Boy Who Bought a Field, broadcast on 6 March 2006. The programme revealed that Wilson had apparently discovered medieval walls and yard-paving. In 2008 the Monmouth Archaeological Society said, "there is now no room for debate" that the excavations by Wilson and others have identified the main part of the medieval town to be around the minor road towards Catbrook, to the south of the current village, on what is now farmland. In 2016, Wilson proposed turning the site into a camp site, research centre and tourist attraction. Some of Wilson's claims have been criticised by academic archaeologists.

Places of historical interest

Church of St Nicholas

thumb|right|St Nicholas' Church

The Anglican parish church has been designated a Grade I listed building since 19 November 1953, and is described by Joseph Bradney as "one of the largest and most handsome of the country churches in the county" of Monmouthshire. With an elegant pointed and prominent steeple, a font and 17th-century sundial, it is a focal point of the village. The main part of the church building is of local Old Red Sandstone, with a three-stage tower. The stone spire can be seen for several miles around and is described by architectural writer John Newman as "the town's pride and joy".

A church on this site, probably a wooden structure, was endowed by Ffernfael ap Ithel and Meurig ap Tewdrig who were rulers of Gwent in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Preaching Cross in the churchyard is early Medieval in date, as is the font. The present building dates from the 13th or early 14th century. The early English Gothic stonework has been dated to between 1225 and 1272, and that of the Decorated Gothic up to 1350. The church has a large clerestoried nave, with a much smaller chancel. The "impressive" interior has a "spendidly high" tower arch, and the five-bay nave has arcades on octagonal piers. The stones, situated on publicly accessible land belonging to the Davies family of Crosshands Farm, are a scheduled ancient monument. The stones have been described as "one of the more substantial megalithic monuments in Monmouthshire". They are believed to date back to the Bronze Age. Such remains are rare in this part of Wales. Various local traditions are ascribed to them: that they were erected by Harold Godwinson to celebrate a victory over the Welsh in 1063; that they commemorate three chieftains who fell fighting against the Romans; or that they were flung from the Skirrid by the mythical Jack o' Kent in a trial of strength with the Devil.

The stones form an approximate line running between north-east and south-west at an azimuth of about 229°, which probably indicates the midwinter sunset, though the midsummer sunrise cannot be excluded on account of the lack of precise alignment of the stones. They have been described as "the most visually impressive of the alignments in South Wales." The stones are respectively , , and high, the tallest being at the south-west; the overall length of the row is . The central stone has what are thought to be cup marks. It is supposed that the stones were dragged to the site on logs and levered into position, probably either for seasonal information or for use at religious ceremonies. Houlder (1978) speculates that they were once part of a much larger and impressive alignment, but Castleden (1992) suggests that they did not form part of a stone circle

Aubrey Burl asserts that short stone-rows of this kind were used as the ritual centres of families of "perhaps ten or twenty adults and children", though the erection of large stones required the co-operation of several such families. He compared the Trellech stones to the row at Le Vieux-Moulin, Plouharnel, near Carnac, and says that "Similar short rows were erected by communities in Ireland, Britain and Brittany in the centuries of the Bronze age between 1800 and 1000 BC".

Tump Terret and Court Farm

thumb|Tump Terret

Tump Terret is situated within the grounds of Court Farm to the southwest of the church. It dates back to Norman times, as the site of a small motte and bailey castle; traces of its surrounding ditch remain. and the castle was still extant in 1263, when it was mentioned in manorial documents. A local myth, commemorated on the sundial, was that it was a burial mound for those killed in actions between the forces of Harold Godwinson and the opposing Welsh. A now-vanished summer house was built by the Rumsey family on top of the mound.

The Village Hall / The Babington Centre

The building now known as the Trellech Village Hall, previously The Babington Centre was constructed in 1820 as a primary school. A school was first established in the village in 1591 by the epigrammatist John Owen, and a century later, in 1691, a new school was set up by the local vicar, Zachary Babington, a relative of the bishop of Llandaff, Gervase Babington.

When Trellech Primary School moved to a new site on the north side of the village, the 1820 school building was claimed by the Diocese of Monmouth, but eventually passed to the Trellech Babington Educational Trust, a registered charity established in 1992.

Notable people

Philosopher, logician and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was born at Cleddon Hall, then known as "Ravenscroft", the country home of his parents Lord and Lady Amberley, situated between Trellech and Llandogo.

Kate Humble, the television presenter, farms in Trellech. In 2013 Spice Girls singer Melanie Chisholm had a house in Catbrook, to the south of the village.

References

  • Trellech United Community Council
  • Genuki info on Trellech with links
  • Kelly's 1901 Directory of Monmouthshire on Trellech
  • Lost City of Trellech project
  • The Babington Centre (Trellech Village Hall) website
  • The Lion Inn website
  • Trellech Primary School website