Our Lady and Jesus statue, Penrhys

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 30 Mar 2015

Located at the southern edge of the village, at about 285 metres (c935 ft) above sea level. A nearby information board records that the area where Penrhys is now has a long and rich history. As a religious site dedicated to Our Lady Mary it was one of the most famous medieval pilgrimage sites. The shrine was used as a healing spring and was reputed to cure rheumatism and eye disorders. A statue of Mary nursing the infant Jesus marked the shrine site for many centuries, until the 1530s, the decade of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII. On the orders of Thomas Cromwell, the King's chancellor, it was taken down to be publicly destroyed in London. The statue seen here was carved from Portland Stone in the early 1950s using a design based on descriptions of the original recorded in medieval Welsh poetry. The Archbsishop of Cardiff blessed the statue on July 2nd 1953.

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