Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

The small village that is today called Llanddewi-Brefi was originally plain Brefi. (Remember, in Welsh, a single "f" has a hard sound - as in "of", not a soft sound, like "off"). Its name now reflects the fact that at a decisive moment in Welsh Church history, St. David spoke at a synod held here. A collection of ancient grave markers, many inscribed simply with the names of those whose burials they marked, underlines the antiquity of the human settlement here. Symbols and words carved on these markers confirm the Christian nature of the burials. This hard evidence shows Christianity was here even before the time of St. David: this is one of the oldest definite Christian sites in the British Isles.

Note: it was well past sunset when I arrived at this church, and the camera flash I had with me was not really up to the job of producing good photographs. I have enhanced the pictures below, and consequently they are not of the quality that I aspire to present at this website. God willing, I shall return and take some better ones; in the meantime, please make allowances.

This modern statue of St. David stands in the corner of the church, just inside the door. Like all modern representations of the Celtic saints, the appearance of the person in the work of art is the result of the imagination of the artist.

(Oct 2000)

The Synod of Brefi was held in 519.

Giraldus Cambrensis records that St. Dubricius, who was at that time the Bishop of Caerleon, was so impressed by what David said at the Synod that he resigned his see in favour of David.

The church is said to have been built on the site of the mound from which David spoke to the assembled Synod members, though it actually dates from almost seven centuries later. A quick glance around the building shows that it has been altered a number of times, and at some stage in the past must have been considerably larger than it is now.

The inscribed stones are displayed on either side of the chancel, having been brought indoors to protect them from the elements.

Each of these was originally a grave marker, though some of them were pressed into other uses at various stages in their history. The one on the right of the right-hand picture that is inscribed with a cross was for many years used as a gate post near the church.

Having photographed a number of these stones, one thing that surprises me is that many of them (all over north and mid Wales) appear to have been drawn on with chalk on order to bring out the details of the inscriptions. One would like to think that those who are interested in this area of research would have more respect for the artefacts.

This is an entertaining representation of a human figure, though interestingly the person's head is represented in the same way as the hands!

In the pictures below, the stones have been oriented so as to make the inscriptions easier to read.
				"DALLUS DUMELUS" (or possibly "PAULUS DUMELUS") Dumelus is apparently a name known from Irish inscriptions. Any date for this piece is fairly conjectural, but the sixth century has been suggested.
"‡CENLISINI BT DS" (short for CENLISINI BenedicaT DominuS) Cenlisini, let God bless him (or her) This inscription is much more orderly than the Dumelus inscription, and may be later.

The dating of these artefacts is problematic. The number of Roman artefacts that have been discovered in the area make it certain that the Romans were here in force, so it's no surprise that the inscriptions appear (as much as anything can be said about such brief inscriptions hat are little more than personal names, anyway) to be in Latin. Welsh began to be more widespread in inscriptions in about the eighth century. So, anything between these dates could be sensibly proposed for these monuments. Very few monuments include information that yields a concrete date, and in most cases the evidence used to disclose the date of the objects comes from the names themselves, the spelling of common words, and the script in use. Of course, the script may not be a very good guide at all - sometimes a stone carver has to go with the grain in the stone, just as a wood carver might.

I was travelling southwards when I visited Llanddewi-Brefi, and thought I was on the B4343,
when in fact I took the next minor road below it on the map. That road grew very narrow indeed
as it wandered over hill and dale. It took a while to get back on track!

Inscriptions
Nevern/Nanhyfer (The inscription has been picked out in yellow for clarity.)	Latin	Eliseg's Pillar/Piler Eliseg, Escomb, Llanddewi-Brefi, Nevern/Nanhyfer
	Ogham	Nevern/Nanhyfer
	Old English	Great Edstone, Kirkdale, Wensley
	Runes	Bewcastle, Old Byland, Urswick
	Welsh	Tywyn
Inscriptions come in several recognisable forms. They may be in different languages, including Latin and Old English, and they may use different scripts, including Ogham, runes, and the alphabet which evolved into the one in current use (though Old English has extra letters compared with today). In some cases, the same inscription is given in more than one form, and such monuments are particularly useful, as they can provide information about the decipherment of such scripts, much like the Rosetta Stone did for Egyptian hieroglyphics. The inscriptions can tell various things: sometimes they give the name of the person commemorated by the monument, sometimes its maker. Occasionally, they convey information about historical circumstances; these are often the most valuable inscriptions, because they allow definite dates to be assigned to the objects. In the case of those inscriptions which appear simply to be a name, some discretion has been applied in categorising them; generally, they are classified according to the language that uses a similar script.

* The Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (and corresponding Latitude/Longitude) given at the top of the pages describing individual sites usually refer to the location of the closest or most prominent entrance to the site where the monument is to be found - e.g. a gate into a churchyard. For monuments located in open country, or at a significant distance from the site entrance as just defined, the co-ordinates usually refer to the exact location of the monument.
Please allow for a small error in the co-ordinates of up to a couple of dozen metres.

Thanks to the people at streetmap.co.uk, if you click on the Grid References in the magenta boxes on the site pages,
you'll see an extract from the relevant Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Landranger map!

As the official mapping agency of the United Kingdom Government, the Ordnance Survey produces the definitive maps of the country. They contain a wealth of information.
For more details, visit www,ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

Click here if you need an explanation of the terminology on these pages

Click here if you would like to see a bibliography

Click here if you would like to download the freeware "Mordred" font (in True-type for Windows)
so that the headings used on these pages will then look like the following:

Click to go to Pre-Norman crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales	Read about the Saints
Click to go to Mediaeval crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales

Locality maps at this web-site have been developed using Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 (and later editions).

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site. Latest update: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 12:52
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Roman or Romano-British sites
Margam	Askham Richard, Ilkley, Llanddewi-Brefi, Margam, Nevern/Nanhyfer, Penmachno