The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Historic Environment Record
 

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St Margarets Grange

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 00906w
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Coedffranc
Unitary authority : Neath Port Talbot
NGR : SS70509521
Site Type (preferred type first) : Medieval Grange

Summary :
Grange of Cwrt Llan Margaret (Neath Abbey) mentioned in a survey of 1602 at or near Cwrt-y-Bettws.

Description :
Grange of Cwrt Llan Margaret (Neath Abbey) mentioned in a survey of 1602 at or near Cwrt-y-Bettws. Possibly to be found at Penisa'r-coed farm, 235m N of St Margaret's chapel (PRN 642w); 19th century farmhouse incorporates dressed Sutton stone, and farmbuilding have impressive square courtyard plan (Williams 2001, 149-50 fig 61, 307 no.108).
Evans 2003: GGAT 73 Early-Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites Project database

Group of quarry and deserted settlement features (09948w/NPRN 405224) found near the barn (01847w) west of Pen Isar Coed farm. They are a likely candidate for the main focus of St Margaret's Grange (00906w). The settlement is indicated as a farmstead on OS Surveyors Drawing and the 1st Ed. OS Map of 1830 (OS 1st Series sheet 37). It is depicted on the earlier document as two buildings in an enclosure with two further detached buildings to the north. On the 1st Ed. OS 1inch map (1830) the settlement is shown as 5 buildings including the barn (01847w). On both maps this is the only settlement in the area, therefore the later farmstead to the east (the current Pen Isar Coed) is likely to be a relocation of the farmstead, constructed on an entirely new site in 1829. The reused dressed stone at the new site is likely to have come from the nearby chapel remains (00642w).

The settlement site is a sub rectangular precinct enclosure approx. 58.5m by 44.5m aligned northwest-southeast and is located just south of the barn (01847w). Within the enclosure is a group of three, possibly four platforms cut into the slope at the west of the enclosure, with a further small structure noted at the south-west angle. At the east side of the enclosure are two ranges of parallel and closely set platform houses seperated by a narrow passage and set apart from the other platforms by a track transecting the site southwest-northeast. A sub-rectangular (rhomboid) enclosure/pound approx. 21m by 30m was noted on the high ground to the west of the settlement. All within a tapering enclosure defined by a substantial embanked boundary which is curvilinear to the west (Roberts 2014).

Sources :
Evans, E M , 2003 , Early Medieval Ecclesiastical sites in Southeast Wales: Desk based assessment
RCAHMW , 1982 , An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan
Roberts, R , 2014 , GGAT 129: Cistercian Granges in Glamorgan and Gwent
Williams, D H , 2001 , The Welsh Cistercians
01/pm desc text/RCAHM//1982/Invent III 2/p255 MG10
02/mm ap/GGAT//1988/A67 23
Evans EM, 2003-04, GGAT 73 Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites Project

Events :
E000468 : ST MARGARETS GRANGE, PARTIAL EXCAVATION, 1924 (year : 1924)

Related records
National Monuments Record NPRN 19929 http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/19929/details

Compiled date : 12-03-2004


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