Neath Abbey

I'm a member of Cadw which is a Welsh Organisation responsible for the conservation of many historic locations in Wales; their recent magazine gave an interesting article on Neath Abbey so I thought I'd take a couple of hours out of my day to have a look.

The Abbey is located near Neath (South Wales, UK) It was once the largest abbey in Wales. Substantial ruins can still be seen, and are in the care of Cadw. It is a sister Abbey to Tintern Abbey (the first in Wales), but Tintern has suffered less damage over the years due to it's more discreet location.

Neath Abbey was established in 1129 AD  when Richard 1 de Grenville, one of the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan, gave 8,000 acres of his estate, to  Savigniac monks from western Normandy. Following the assumption of the Savigniac order into the Cistercian order in 1147, Neath Abbey also became a Cistercian house. The abbey was ravaged by the Welsh uprisings of the 13th century.


During the Dissolution of the Monastries  by King Henry V111, the last abbot, lleision ap Thomas, managed to buy time through payment of a large fine in 1536, but the abbey was dissolved in 1539. At this time, the abbey was turned into a large estate.By 1730, some of the buildings were being used for copper smelting, and the rest were abandoned.Between 1924 and 1935 the site was excavated: The blipfoto shows the current state of The Abbey with it's ongoing conservation work. Dr Who and Merlin have been filmed at the site.

This evening I went to the Cardiff City v Newcastle match which Cardiff lost 0-2. It was the last home match of the season. It wasn't a one sided match as the scoreline suggests, Cardiff missing a couple of 'sitters' and having two 'goals' disallowed....plus a good call for a penalty dismissed. Newcastle are already promoted so our display bodes well for next season.