Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club.

SECOND FIELD MEETING, THURSDAY, JUNE 17TH, 1897.

OLCHON VALLEY AND THE BLACK MOUNTAINS.

THE atmosphere was favourable to-day for distant views, and the weather was all that could be desired for the walk of eight or nine miles from Llanveyno, where the carriages were left, through Olchon Valley, thence over the Black Mountains, a range extending from the Hatteral Hill at its southern extremity to Pen-y-begwm, the top of the Beacon, 2,219 feet high, but not the greatest altitude of the range, at its northern end over-looking, and about three miles distant from, Hay.

The botanists and ornithologists succeeded in finding some rarities, as will be observed when their records are printed.

The members trained to Pandy, having entered Monmouthshire when crossing the boundary line here formed by the river Monnow, shortly before reaching Pandy station. Carriages from the Angel Hotel, Abergavenny, were in readiness to take the party to Llanveyno, a distance of about seven miles. Close to Pandy station is Allt-yr-ynys (the hillside over the island), in Herefordshire, which was formerly the seat of the Cecil family. The following remarks are taken from an article, "Holiday Notes on the Welsh Marches," in The Scottish Antiquary, Vol. vii, No. 26, September, 1892, by the editor, Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen, page 64 :-"Though not ennobled till Queen Elizabeth in 1571 created her trusted councillor William Cecil, Baron Burghley, the Cecils held a good position as country gentry, owning the estate of Alt-yr-ynis. . . . . Lord Burghley took great pains to prove his descent, and from records he collected there is proof that he was son of Richard Cecil, or Sitsilt as the name was spelt. Richard was groom of the wardrobe to King Henry VIII. He was the son of David Cecil, serjeant-at-arms and steward of the King's manor of Coleweston, Northamptonshire. This David was second son of Philip Cecil, and his wife, Maud Vaughan, the granddaughter of Richard, Lord Talbot. David, like many younger sons, travelled up to London to make a position for himself. He seems to have been apprenticed to a citizen, a sieve-maker, on London Bridge, and this circumstance, common as it was at the period, was made use of to taunt his descendants with. They, however, successfully proved their gentle descent. The head of the house and his descendants continued at Alt-yr-ynis. Amongst the Marquis of Salisbury's family papers at Hatfield is a Genealogy of the Sitsilts of Haultereinnes in Evas, Hereford, in two branches. Sir W. Cecil, Lord Burghley, and William Sitsilt, of Haultereinnes, A.D., 1588.' The family,

however, has now disappeared, though it existed as late as the commencement of this century, as a tomb with the Cecil arms carved on it in Grosmont churchyard testifies."

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On page 65 of the same article we read:-" In the Parish Registers of Skenfrith Church are entries of 1728, May 30, buried John Cesill,' and amongst the clerical signatures appear W. Cecil, in 1760, and Philip Hastings Cecil, vicar, who first signs the book in 1769."

Again, on page 61, "we have seen a statement that Gerald Sitsilt, or Cecil, ancestor of the ennobled families of Cecil, was buried in Abbeydore Church under a tomb bearing his arms. As his grandson, Sir John Sitsilt (son of John Sitsilt and Sibil, daughter of Robert de Ewias), was living in 1337, one of these tombs may possibly be his."

Trewyn, or Win's Home, in Monmouthshire, approached through an avenue of fir trees, where the members have been twice welcomed by General Gillespie, is treated of in Transactions, May 15th, 1884, pages 152 and 167, q.v. Oldcastle Court, about six hundred yards left of the route, is built upon the site of a former castle. St. John the Baptist's Church is close to the Court; see Sheet 48, N.E., Ordnance Survey Map. About one mile further north, at Glandwr, we again crossed the boundary to re-enter Herefordshire (Sheet 49, N.W.), and after proceeding for another short mile passed Clodock Church upon the right hand (Sheet 43, S.E). The simple primitive Lich Gate, dated 1667, has both its walls leaning. The Church possesses some features of the Norman period. Traditionally this Church is on the site of the assassination of St. Cleodicus, and his tumulus, of which there are now no vestiges, was, according to local traditions, reared on the high bank across the river. The Cornewall Arms is near the church and the altitude here is given in the map as 400 feet. About half a mile north of Clodock Church a fine tumulus is observed upon the left near Ponthendre, and at this locality the road crosses the Olchon Brook, which here joins the Monnow river upon its right bank. Half a mile still further north upon the road leading to Michaelchurch the Escley brook empties into the Monnow upon its left bank. Proceeding onwards, taking the road bearing to the left for the distance of half a mile, the highway passes through an ancient quadrangular camp, or earthwork, upon the north-eastern angle of which the ruined ancient castle of Longtown surmounts an extensive mound. Neither history nor documentary evidence has been found in connection with this Castle. It is a building of curvilinear curtains with circular drum buttresses, similar to the Donjon or Juliet which succeeded the old Norman towers and Shell Keeps, not to be confounded with the dungeon, of which there were none save in a very few exceptional cases, the buildings so miscalled being really required and used as magazines and store houses rather than as dungeons for prisoners. One of the towers appeared to have served the purpose of a huge chimney. It is true that what is called in mediæval military architecture a Keep was commonly built as a place for final retreat and safety, within the area. In this instance the lofty mound upon which the masonry building is erected forms an excellent defensive work on a commanding situation, and there are vestiges of masonry constructions of an

inner and outer ward to the south.

The Castle deserved a longer examination, but time forbade more than a flying visit by some of the most active members whilst the carriages proceeded leisurely forward up the hill.

Longtown Church has nave, chancel, and Early Decorated windows. It has no burial ground. At Longtown the road is on an elevation of 600 feet, and from this point it continues ascending, with but few breaks, for several miles, and was found a heavy drag against the horses' collars. At the distance of about half a mile from Longtown Castle (Sheet 43, N.E.), at the fork of the road near Chapel House, the road inclining to the left must be taken for Llanveyno, as the other roads conduct by the Great and Little Cwm and Parry Cwm farms, thence through Craswall to Hay. From the fork of the road, 744 feet above sea level, another mile and a half brought our party to Llanveyno Church upon the left, the terminus for our carriages on an elevation of 874 feet, whence the descent was made to the Olchon Brook by a lane one mile in length to the ford and foot-bridge at a farm which is named Glandwr, the same name as the farm one mile south of Clodock which was passed in the earlier part of our carriage journey.

Llanveyno Church, a diminutive building only 28 feet by 17 feet, has some 14th century windows in the chancel. Like Longtown it has no burial ground, and both these buildings are chapelries to the mother church of Clodock.

The road from Longtown to Llanveyno is upon a narrow ridge of land, with the narrow Olchon Valley on the left, and the wider valley upon the right, which leads to Craswall. The Black Daren, 1,750 feet high, and the Red Daren, 1,927 5 feet high, stand out in succession conspicuously under the semblance of landslips of Old Red Sandstone detached from Hatteral Hill.

On entering the narrow gorge of the Olchon Valley the sharp knife-like ridge of Crib-y-Garth, locally called Cats' Back, is conspicuous upon the right. It runs as a long spur southwards from Black Hill, 2,102 feet high, and forms with the latter the eastern boundary of the Valley.

At Glandwr farm the members were met by Mr. James Smith, of Olchon Court farm, who very kindly acted as guide as far as Pen-y-beacon, or Pen-y-beg wm, the northern extremity of the Black Mountains. This guide was obtained upon the recommendation of Dr. Leslie Thain of Glan Olchon House, Clodock, whose professional engagements prevented his attendance, and who with his cultivated taste of antiquarian lore would have given us all the traditions he had gathered from the memories of the inhabitants. Dr. Thain also kindly made all the local arrangements for the conveyance of refreshments to Olchon Court, which, by the way, were thoughtfully supplied by our member, Mr. J. Carless, who has a tenant in the adjoining farm, The Firs, far aloof from sound of railway trains. There is evidently enough of interest in this locality for a special meeting instead of being scamped over in passing as was to-day imperative, and the place must be re-visited whenever practicable, under the joint guidance of Alderman the Rev. John Davies, of Tynewydd, Pandy, and Dr. Thain. Some of the inhabitants here can boast of their dwellings having been in the hands of their ancestors for many generations. In these isolated farm buildings many a quaint scrap of traditional lore is stored away in the memories of the tenants, and many times

will the same thrilling story be told by the fireside in the absence of daily newspapers. A visit to this out-of-the-way locality has been recently very pleasantly treated by "H. C. T." in the pages of Longman's Magazine for November, 1896, under the title "Another Arcady."

Having crossed Olchon Brook at Glandwr farm, the members, under the guidance of Mr. Smith, ascended a grass grown lane or cart track, which occasionally serves as a watercourse in times of floods, bounded by high unkempt hedges, out of which shortly a little deviation was made to the right in order to inspect Cae Thomas's Well (Saint Thomas's Well), containing water of a very cool temperature and of perfect clearness. Thence onwards over a grass meadow only one acre in extent, from which eleven loads of hay had been recorded as carried. The route thence led through a sheltered nook covered with a plantation of holly trees, whose tops had been trimmed to supply a change of food for cattle in the winter season, the leaves of the upper branches being bare of thorns or prickles. A distance of about half a mile from Cae Thomas's Well brought the party to a halt for luncheon at one o'clock at Olchon Court farm.

The unkempt high hedges must not be attributed to negligence and bad farming. They are purposely untrimmed in order to afford useful shelter in these exposed lofty situations for sheep, of which Mr. Smith has as many as four hundred.

On entering Olchon Court the surroundings prompted the visitors to quote the less prosaic language of the writer of "Another Arcady":-" Some of these interiors are so beautiful in their peacefulness, their 'tranquillity of order.' I am thinking of one such now; the old porch, the large kitchen, the carved oak chest, the inlaid chest of drawers with its engraved brass locks and handles, the puppy sheep dog who has squeezed himself into the snug chimney corner and looks out furtively at the strangers, the picturesque old figure sitting by the fire knitting yarn which is spun from the fleeces of her own sheep. not absolutely a wilderness where no man is, but it will show that it is thinly populated when I say that we walked two miles to this farm and met no one on the way."

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After luncheon the President made some remarks respecting the associations of Sir John Oldcastle and the mediæval Baptists with this locality.

Olchon Court is a farm building with substantial walls of masonry, a 14th century doorway, and square-headed and mullioned windows. One room on the ground floor, in which we lunched, has a recess like an aumbry, and one of the windows retains its original antiquity. The window in a room above, pointed out traditionally as the window through which Sir John Oldcastle escaped from his pursuer, has undergone restorations since his period. The escape of Sir John Oldcastle is as fresh to-day in the current traditions of this locality as if it had taken place within the lifetime of the oldest inhabitant. This farmhouse is also locally known as Court Walter. It is supposed to have been the home of Walter Brute, one of the earliest Lollards in Herefordshire, a man of considerable talents and learning, who was in 1391 cited to appear before Trevenant, Bishop of Hereford, for heresy. It is not positively known what became of him, though

some think that he was put to death at Bodenham. Sir John Oldcastle, afterwards Lord Cobham, was in his youth a favourite companion of Henry V. before his accession to the throne, and was, so says Coxe, "awakened to virtue by a sense of religion." In 1413 he was charged with a breach of the Statute, and with encouragement of the Lollards, particularly in the Dioceses of London, Rochester, and Hereford, by sending out "unlicensed preachers," and himself attending their meetings, and was committed to the Tower. Upon his escape from the Tower, a rising of the Lollards occurred round London, and Sir John fled into Wales, when a reward of 1,000 marks was offered for his capture dead or alive. Owing to his friendship with the Brute family, it is believed that he sought refuge in this secluded valley, where he is supposed to have remained concealed for a period of four years. Eventually, after his escape from Olchon Court, he was betrayed by some followers of the Earl of Powis, taken prisoner at Broniarth, in Montgomeryshire, and thence again conveyed to London, where, being adjudged as “traitor and heretic," he was hanged and burnt hanging on Christmas Day, 1417.

In "Herefordshire Biographies" Mr. John Hutchinson says that Sir John Oldcastle was born about the year 1360, and this author shares with Robinson in his "Castles of Herefordshire" the belief that Oldcastle in Almeley was most probably the place of his birth. There is in Herefordshire a third Oldcastle, on the western border of Deerfold Forest, between Lingen and the ruined abbey, or nunnery, of Limebrook, but neither history nor investigation encourage us to support the statement of some antiquaries that he may have been born there; that he may have visited the locality is possible enough since we know that William de Swynderby (William the Hermit) was there in 1390, and that many Lollards for a long time remained in the Forest of Deerfold, and most probably conducted their religious services in the Chapel Farm. (See the excellent paper by Dr. Bull in Transactions 1869, page 168, on "The Lollards in Herefordshire," and the accompanying illustration of the beautiful 14th century roof of Chapel Farm).

Mr. John Howells, in his pamphlet "The Old Baptist Church at Olchon, and Life and Martyrdom of Sir John Oldcastle," published in 1886, says, on page 41, "Olchon may, upon the whole, be looked upon as the birthplace of the first Reformers, the first Nonconformists, and the first Baptists among the Welsh; the district must be deemed a consecrated spot by many. It is certain that a church was gathered here as early as the year 1415, and probably much earlier." Vestiges of foundations near Olchon Court show the site of the old chapel, and tombstones bearing date 1387 have been dug up in the burial ground belonging to the church.

After luncheon the advance was sounded. The Olchon Brook, here nothing more than a diminutive brooklet, was again crossed, and the ascent of the hill was made. On reaching the greatest altitude of the bridle road to Hay, or cart track, if such it may be called, the Ordnance Map was consulted, and the elevation of 2,145 feet was given. Crass wall Chapel could be seen on the opposite side of the intermediate valley, and also the site of Crasswall Abbey and Priory. There are several farms about these hills situated upon very high ground. Olchon