IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cwmplysgog, CARDIGAN, SA43 2TA

The metal gate may be new but the steps show some considerable wear.

Pompren yn rhychwantu Afon Plysgog. Footbridge spanning Afon Plysgog.

This OS cut mark can be found on the wall of St Llawddog's Church. It marks a point 31.961m above mean sea level.

Pontdroed yn rhychwantu Afon Plysgog. A footbridge spanning Afon Plysgog.

Taken around 1987

The mediaeval church here was demolished and this substantial Victorian Gothic replacement was completed in 1853 sparing only the original C15 tower. Llawddog was a C6 Celtic saint, son of the king of Usk, whose cult was established on the banks of the Teifi and also on Bardsey. The Normans switched the dedication to St Lawrence while they held sway.

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/402530/

A slate tablet in the church in memory of 'John Loyd of Kilrhewe' who died in 1657, aged 36, has an epitaph commissioned by his widow from the local poet Katherine Fowler Philips (1631-1664) known as 'the matchless Orinda'. She was a Londoner whose widowed mother married a Cardigan gent and who was subsequently married off, aged 16, to a much older (or not?) friend of her stepfather's, James Philips. They lived at Cardigan Priory and gathered around them a literary coterie who adopted pastoral pseudonyms. Her work, much of it passionate tributes to female friendship, was highly regarded by her contemporaries. She also translated Corneille but died of smallpox at a young age. She was a woman of learning, idealism, and solid accomplishments at a time when most women were illiterate but until her reputation was revived by feminist intellectuals, she tended to be downgraded as a serious writer. The epitaph seen here reads as follows: Preserve thou sad and sole trustee, Of my deare husband's memory These reliques of my broken hart, Which I am forced to impart, For since he so untimely dyed, And living pledges was denyed, Since dayes of mourning soon are done And teares doe perish as they runne, Nay since my griefe must also dy For that's no longer liv'd than I, His name can live no way but one In an abiding faithful stone. Tell then the unconcerned eyes, The value of their guest and prize, How good he was, usefull and just, How kind, how true unto his trust, Which known and when their sence propounds How mournfully a widdow sounds, They may instructed go from thee To follow him and pitty mee.

In Cilgerran churchyard, a cross surmounts 6 graves of members of the Gower family including that of Sir William Logan, geologist, (1798-1875) who was responsible for the mineral survey of the South Wales coalfield and of much of Western Canada where he is still held in high repute. Although born in Montreal he spent his last years at Cilgerran, his sister Elizabeth having married Abel Lewes Gower of Castell Malgwyn.