Illtud and Samson: the 6th century
The origin of the site lies within the obscurity of the late 5th to early 6th century post-Roman period. In this period, a monastery existed where teacher named Illtud provided a broad education and training with a late antique milieu. This monastery is believed to have been at Llantwit Major.
Almost all we know of Illtud derives from an early ‘life’ of St Samson (the Vita Prima Samsonis) in which he is described as having been a pupil of Illtud’s. Samson’s parents, says the ‘life’, took ‘their son to the school of the famous master of the Britons, Eltut by name. …. And in truth Eltut was of all the Britons the most accomplished in the Scriptures, namely of the Old and New Testaments, and in philosophy of every kind, of form, geometry namely, and of rhetoric, grammar and arithmetic, and of all the theories of philosophy. And by birth he was a most wise magician, having knowledge of the future. In his splendid monastery I have been’.
Later in his life, Samson worked in what is now Brittany and was a signatory to the 3rd Council of Paris in c. 561, signing (and thus demonstrating the quality of his education) in leonine hexameter: Samson subscripsi et consensi in nomine Christi.
The early ‘life’ of Samson was probably written in Brittany in the late-7th century but its author appears to have gone to great lengths to find good sources for his subject and to have travelled to Wales to visit Illtud’s monastery. It is this rigour (and the independent evidence for Samson in Paris) that provides a key evidential link; the author of the life was able to visit a site that in the late seventh century was believed to be the monastery of Illtud where Samson had studied only 150 years previously. This is a relatively short time gap for the transmission of this identification. Moreover, by which time there are surviving references to the Abbas ilduti as a witness to documents contained in the Book of Llandaff. Form this point onwards, there is a relatively continuous line of evidence for the monastery dedicated to St Illtud being at Llantwit Major.
The monastic heyday: 7th to 9th centuries
Through the 7th to 9th centuries the monastery retained and enhanced its reputation for learning. It gained the patronage of the kings of Glywysing, a small kingdom in SE Wales, with Llantwit at its heart.
In the 7th century, the area of the excavation in the Globe Field was used for various ‘industrial’ process – initially for crop processing, but in the later seventh into the eighth centuries it was the site of a significant metal-working workshop. The smiths worked in a wide range of metals and while such activities are well-known on monastic sites of the period in Ireland and Scotland, they are documented here for the first time in Wales.
At the same time, the western side of the valley downstream from the church was employed as a cemetery. The remains of several individuals have been radiocarbon-dated to the period between the mid-7th and mid-8th centuries. It is likely, therefore, that the smithy and the cemetery were parts of the monastery when it was visited by Samson’s biographer.
There is no evidence for what was happening on the site of the modern church at this period, but the late eighth century saw the erection of the earliest of the surviving inscribed stones – the cross erected by Abbot Samson for his soul and those of King Iuthahel, Artmail and Tecan. At the same time as this high status activity was taking place at the church, the Globe Field site shows the creation of a small cemetery for very young children. After this initial phase of special burials, the site became used for adult burials too.
The continued high level of learning at the monastery in this period is not only demonstrated by the high quality of the inscriptions on the earlier inscribed monuments now housed in the Galilee Chapel at Llantwit but also, perhaps in a single surviving manuscript that might have been produced in the scriptorium at Llantwit, the ‘Cambridge Juvencus’.
Decline: the 10th and 11th centuries
On the Globe Field site, there is evidence that the cemetery was no longer active by the 10th century. There appears to have been erosion, churning of the ground by animals, perhaps pigs and bones from the earlier cemetery were disturbed onto the ground surface.
The carved stone pillars and a cross-shaft with well-executed interlace patterns provide evidence for continued activity on the church site in this period, but there are no further references to Abbots of Iltud in the Book of Llandaff. It is likely that the church continued, run by its hereditary lay priests (clas), but with a much reduced status. Why this decline occurred is not known, but there were multiple pressures. The kings of Glywysing had from the later 9th century paid homage to the kings of Wessex, probably for assistance against expansionist neighbours in Wales and Mercia, but those external pressures grew in the 10th century. At the same time Morgan, grandson of Hywel ap Rhys, appears to have more tightly bound Glywysing to Gwent forming the kingdom of Morgannwg (Gwlad Morgan) and his focus, and patronage, may have shifted eastwards. King Edgar of Wessex is supposed to have raided Llantwit in c. 975 and the Vikings likewise in 988.
Reinvention: the 11th and 12th centuries
Quite different external factors acted upon Llantwit in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Firstly, there was the rise of Llandaff as the seat of the Bishops of Teilo, later Bishops of Gwlad Morgan and from c.1120, Bishops of Llandaff. The second was the Norman conquest. After the initial holding of an enclave around Cardiff in the heart of Gwlad Morgan, the Normans, under Robert Fitzhamon, took control of the former western parts of that kingdom from c. 1089 onwards. Fitzhamon retained much of the land around Llantwit as his personal demesne, but he granted the church, some of its lands, and the tithes of the estate to Tewkesbury Abbey.
Initially, Tewkesbury Abbey probably leased the church and its lands back to the clas family. During the early post-conquest period, Llantwit gained a new church in Norman style and, c.1140 a new ‘life’ of St Illtud was written, both perhaps under the influence of Llandaff rather than Tewkesbury. Although it is inconceivable that the great monastery of Illtud did not have a ‘Life’ on its altar, there is little sign of older material in the new 12th century ‘life’. It does, however, set out in great detail aspects of local topography, and how they were linked to Illtud, as a means of promoting and enhancing a pilgrim’s experience.
In the Globe Field, a drystone walls dividing new arable fields were built across the area of the former cemetery, probably as a further component of the reinvigoration of the clas church. This system of enclosure probably also included the square churchyard around the new church, known to have been in existence by 1140, but which represents just a small fraction of the earlier extent of burial. It also probably includes the banks still visible in the Great Ley (’the Dovecot Field’), where they abut the major western boundary of the system, the eastern boundary of the which probably coincides with Wine Street, the marketplace and Colhugh Street, between them enclosing an area 500m north-south by 250m east-west. These boundaries controlled the location and development of the medieval town. but It is not yet known whether this large enclosure was also created in the Norman period, or whether it was inherited from early medieval monastery.
In the 13th century Tewkesbury Abbey’s relationship with its Llantwit property shifted as it exerted more direct control. The church was expanded eastwards, probably so that it could house a priest appointed by the Abbey, whilst the hereditary clas priest retained the increasingly subordinate western church. The abbey also ceased to simply lease the lands to the clas family, but constructed a complex of buildings for the collection of the tithe and appointed a local officer to oversee the process and the leasing of the land. Parts of this complex (the gatehouse and dovecote) still survive. Although commonly known as the Grange, but it should more properly be known as the Rectory.
This period probably marks the end of the direct role of the clas family in the church at Llantwit, although some of their descendants may have married into the Norman landholding families.