CHAPTER 35
During the late Medieval period (and probably long before this), the church of St Peter’s-on-the-hill was also under the jurisdiction of the Lords of Coity. This means that the upkeep of this church would have been the responsibility of first the Turbevilles, then the Berkrolles and finally the Gamages, before, following the Reformation of the 1530s, it passed into the hands of the Church of England in Wales. Even then, as the local nobility, the Lords of Coity were expected to look after it as its patrons. This long association means they would surely have known all about any Arthurian connections the church may have had. In any case, the Gamages had family actually living in the village of Llanbedr . A distant cousin of Lady Barbara Gamage, the poet William Gamage was born there. He wrote a long poem, Linsey-woolsie , and dedicated this to the Sidneys.
The facts, therefore, are clear. For hundreds of years, Coity Castle was the administrative centre of a largely wooded area. Included in the territory and ruled by the Lordship was Mynydd-y-gaer, with its ‘Arthurian’ church of St Peter’s-on-the-hill.
This connection made me suspect there might be more secrets associated with Coity. Therefore, I was keen to carry out further investigations to see if I could work out just what these might be. In our book The Holy Kingdom, my co-authors and I presented evidence showing that the Glastonbury of Arthurian legend could not have been located in Somerset. We concluded that this was a myth spread around by medieval monks to attract pilgrims (with their cash!) to visit Glastonbury Abbey. My co-authors proposed that the real ‘Glastonbury’ was near Lichfield in the West Midlands. They were very keen on this idea; however, I had my reservations. As a result of my current researches, I was beginning to suspect that the original ‘Glastonbury’ was much closer to Somerset, being located in Glamorgan. The question was: where?
William of Malmesbury, a medieval historian whose work we have already encountered, suggests that the name Glastonbury was derived from ynys witrin or ‘glassy island’. Although I don’t speak Welsh, I know enough to realize that this is nonsense. According to several books in my possession, the Welsh name for Glastonbury was Aberglaston. When I analysed this name, it became clear that, contrary to what William of Malmesbury surmised, the root word glas has nothing to do with the English word ‘glass’ or its Latin equivalent ‘vitrum’. In actuality, glas means blue or green-grey, the colour of either the sea or a woodland canopy. The Welsh word Glaston is possibly derived from glastennen, which is still used in the closely related Cornish language as the name of a certain type of oak tree. The literal meaning of glastennen would appear to be ‘blue tanning’,which would be because oak trees of this variety were used for tanning leather (tennen), while a blue dye (glas) was also produced from their galls. Since aber means the confluence or exit point of a river, it follows that the place name Aberglaston must have referred to a wooded district with oak trees, close to a confluence of two rivers. This is patently not true of Glastonbury in Somerset, which, in ancient times, was marshland with a few hilltops standing proud as islands. There may have been a few oak trees growing on these islands, but the area was not woodland as such. Also, there is no river in the vicinity of Glastonbury. What appears to be a small river today is actually a drainage ditch which dates back only as far as the 17th century when the fenland swamp was drained so that there would be more arable land available for crops or cattle. It follows, therefore, that there could be no confluence of rivers either at or near Glastonbury, and neither was there an estuary. Thus, the appellation aber would have been entirely inappropriate.
At Coity, the situation was quite the opposite. As we have seen, the name means ‘wooded land’, and even today there are a substantial number of oak trees growing in the area. Although not exactly an aber (confluence) itself, it is placed midway between the Rivers Ogmore and Ewenny. Furthermore, the Ewenny (the ‘Whitened River’) has its sources on Mynydd-y-gaer, one of these fairly close to the Church of St Peter’s-on-the-hill. There is also a recorded connection in the area with St Joseph of Arimathea, the supposed founder of the church at Glastonbury. As we have seen, he is usually called St Ilid in Welsh texts, and the Ewenny River has its sources close to Llanilid (‘enclosure or church of Ilid’). Here, there is an ancient earth-bank circle called y gaer gron, ‘the circular fortress’. In fact, this was not a defensive ring but rather a henge monument or ‘sacred circle’. It is of a type that can be seen at other places in the British Isles such as Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire and Knowlton Rings in Dorset. In pre-Christian times, such rings were used as open-air churches. Our word ‘church’, of course, comes from the Latin word circus, which means circle. In those days, it was believed that all religious ceremonies should be conducted in the open during daylight hours. This was so that God, whose ‘eye’ was the Sun, could watch proceedings. Welsh tradition states that Joseph of Arimathea preached to the early Christians of Britain within this circular monument that predates the church building next to it by many centuries.
Less than a mile from Llanilid is Trevran, which means ‘Manor of Bran’. Again, Bran Fendigaid (‘the Blessed’) is listed in many genealogies as the father of Caradoc, the famous ‘Caractacus’, who for nine years (c.AD 43–52) fought against the invading Romans. Their principal historian during these times, Tacitus, tells us how Caractacus was eventually captured and, along with his entire family, taken as a prisoner back to Rome. He also relates how he made an impassioned speech to the Senate. This moved the Emperor Claudius so much that he released him from custody on condition that he stay in Rome and never again bear arms against the Romans. Welsh sources pick up the corollary to this story. They tell us that seven years later, which would be around AD 59, Bran and Eurgain, one of Caradoc’s daughters, returned to Glamorgan with Joseph of Arimathea. The latter helped Eurgain establish a Christian college at what is now called Llantwit Major, but was then named the Coreurgain or ‘Choir of Eurgain’. Meanwhile, Bran retired to Trevran, while his mentor, St Ilid, began his preaching at the ‘Giant’s Circle’ at Llanilid.
All this further evidence linking Joseph of Arimathea to the Greater Coity area reinforced the idea that the real Glastonbury must have been somewhere in the vicinity too. However, the straight identification of Aberglaston with Coity was not wholly convincing. Firstly, it is stretching a point to say that Coity Castle stands at a confluence of rivers. Although it lies between the Rivers Ogmore and Ewenny, their confluence is some miles further south – at Ogmore Castle, to be precise. In any case, what we call Coity Castle today is Norman in origin. While it is possible that it stands on the site once occupied by Morgan’s earlier fortress, this no longer exists. What remains of it, if anything, is another circular, grassy bank. This is several feet high and surrounds most of the castle. It is possible that this bank predates the Norman Castle, which is also circular in the main. In any event, the Turbevilles demolished whatever castle existed before their arrival and built most of what we see today. So could this earlier castle or hillfort be the real Glastonbury? Might it be the legendary Grail Castle, where, according to the Grail legends, Sir Percival was served a sumptuous banquet but failed to ask his host, the Rich Fisher King, the important question: whom does the Grail serve?
Poring over a detailed map of the area, I was inclined to think this might be so, but then I noticed something else. With its source not far from the castle was another, smaller stream. Called the Nantbrynglas, it flowed around a grassy eminence on which stands a woodland area calledCoedbrynglas. More importantly, it flowed into the River Ewenny. Now, in Welsh, the place where two rivers form a confluence (aber) is normally named after the lesser one. Thus, Abergavenny is where the Gavenny river joins the much larger River Usk, and Abercynon is where the Cynon runs into the River Taff. By the same token, the place where the Brynglas stream (nant in Welsh) joins the River Ewenny should be called Aberbrynglas. I looked to see where this was. To my surprise, it was in a field very close to the village of Coychurch. Realizing that this might be important, I went to pay the village a visit.
Coychurch itself turned out to be ancient, apparently founded in the 6th century AD. Therefore, it was much older than the Norman church of St Mary’s, which stands next to Coity Castle. The church was allegedly founded by a ‘St Crallo’, who, it is claimed, was the son of a Breton princess, St Canna. Her first husband (and Crallo’s father) is said to have been her cousin, St Sadwrn, who conveniently deserted her to become a hermit in Anglesey. Other than his parentage, nothing else seems to have been recorded concerning this St Crallo. This made me suspicious that he was really no more than an invention intended to explain the church’s name of Llangrallo. The involvement of St Canna could be explained by the fact that, not many miles from Coychurch is Llangan, a church said to have been founded by her. What seemed peculiar was that Crallo’s alleged father, the hermit St Sadwrn, was both much older than she and was associated with North rather than South Wales. His only involvement in the life of St Canna seems to have been to father the boy Crallo and then to desert her. She, meanwhile, is credited with marrying a second husband by whom she became the mother of St Elian.
The more I looked at this, the more I became convinced that the ‘St Crallo’ story was an invention. I suspected that the real meaning of Llangrallo was probably ‘Church of the Grail’. This, of course, would fit perfectly with all the other evidence linking this area of Glamorgan with Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of Jesus, who is supposed to have brought the Holy Grail or cup containing Christ’s blood to Britain. Llanilid, where he is said to have preached, is only three miles from Coychurch. Flowing through Coychurch itself is the Nantbrynglas, which joins the River Ewenny just a couple of hundred yards from the church. To call the village of Coychurch Aberbrynglas would not be in error, and this is sufficiently similar to Aberglaston to be identified as such. (Map 6)
Map 6. The real ‘Glastonbury’ – in Glamorgan
This, I was now suspecting, was at least part of the secret preserved by the Turbevilles, Berkrolles and Gamages: they were Lords not only of Coity but also of Coychurch, the original ‘church in the woods (coed)’. This, I felt sure, was the real Glastonbury, its church presumably having once housed the Holy Grail. There was, however, another surprise in store when I proceeded to visit the church. I found a large, carved pillar inside that, like so many others in Wales, was once part of what was probably a wheel cross. This pillar had the single word ‘Ebissar’ carved on it.
When I looked into this, I discovered once more that there was a misleading story to explain this word. According to this legend, ‘Ebissar’ was a person’s name: he was a pagan Saxon who was captured in battle. Given the choice of death or becoming a Christian monk, he took the latter option. Accepting the tonsure, he then lived out the remainder of his life as a Christian, and it was he who raised this cross.
When I considered this story further, it didn’t seem to hold water. To begin with, ‘Ebissar’ doesn’t sound at all like an Anglo-Saxon name. It does, however, sound as though it could be Hebrew in origin. Ebenezer, for example, is a Jewish name, eben meaning ‘stone’ in Hebrew andEbenezer‘stone of help’. Lose the ‘-en-’ and you have Ebezer, which phonetically is not much different from Ebissar. Alternatively, -issar could be a variant of the Welsh name Assar, meaning Sarah, which is the name of Abraham’s wife in the Bible. This would be further evidence of Jewish influences in the area during the early centuries AD. If true, then the presence of the Ebissar stone would seem to support the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, who was Jewish himself, bringing Christianity to Wales. Of course, this evidence was anything but conclusive, so I now wanted to see if I could find anything else to support my new theory that Coychurch was the real Aberglaston, while the Lordship of Coity as a whole was the real Vale of Avalon.