The Llantwit Major project

Llantwit Major has long been reputed to be the site of a major early medieval monastery. The site has is origin within the obscurity of late 5th to early 6th century post-Roman period. At this period, a monastery existed where a famous teacher, called Illtud, provided a broad education and training with a late antique milieu.

Unlike most of the shadowy figures of this period, we know a little about Illtud from what appears to be a very carefully researched ‘life’ of his pupil Samson (for whose historical existence we have independent evidence; he was a signatory to the 3rd Council of Paris in c. AD561). This early ‘life’ of Samson was probably written in Brittany in the late-seventh century but its author says he travelled to Wales to visit Illtud’s monastery. This 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 and that site is linked to Llantwit Major because by that time there are references to the Abbas ilduti as a witness to documents contained in the Book of Llandaff. This strengthens the case for Llantwit being the site of Illtud’s monastery, rather than simply being a later cult centre dedicated to him.

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. Some of the kings are commemorated by the wonderful inscribed stones that stood in the churchyard and are now preserved in the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Llantwit church. The status of the monastery declined in the 10th century and was a relatively lowly clas church by the time of the Norman conquest in the late 11th century, with the church and its lands being granted to Tewkesbury Abbey in about AD1100.

A Cardiff University project is investigating parts of this monastery in the valley south of Llantwit church, in particular, through annual excavations in the Globe Field. For the very first time in Wales, aspects of a major early medieval monastery are being revealed.