Entrance to Maesteg RFC ground

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 17 Nov 2011

The Llynfi Road ground is home to Maesteg Rugby Football Club, founded in 1877. The following explanation of The Old Parish and 7777 on the wall is based on text on the club's website: Maesteg's English translation is Fairfield. It is also known as Yr Hen Blwyf or The Old Parish, a name that is forever associated with the numerals 7777, or the Four Sevens. Popular versions of the origin of the Four Sevens are basically the same but it has become a theme with many variations and embellishments. This straightforward account has been taken from the book Tir Iarll (Earls Land) written by the Llangynwyd historian Mr Frederick Evans M.A. from the chapter on Legends " A certain carpenter in the Parish of Llangynwyd had to make a coffin for a young man of twenty eight years of age. When he came to engrave the deceased's age on the coffin lid he became puzzled to how to express it in figures, possibly because he could not cope with the required curves of the two numerals. Recollecting that four sevens made twenty-eight solved the difficulty of inscribing 7 7 7 7 upon the coffin. Thus, says tradition, if one of the inhabitants could have lived so long then the Parish itself must be of a fabulous age. So with a touch of amusement and slight ridicule the Old Parish or Yr Hen Blwyf was born". However plausible the story may be, it is fiction. The name Old Parish dates from the reign of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries. The turmoil of the period saw local churches from the surrounding areas being separated from the mother church of Llangynwyd. When the various boundaries were settled the parish of the mother church of Llangywnyd was known henceforth as The Old Parish.

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