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HOLLOWAY FORMER STRIP FIELDS

GRID REFERENCE: SN 413066

AREA IN HECTARES: 76.10

Historic Background

An area within the Medieval borough of Kidwelly, which has a good documented Medieval and Post-Medieval history, representing former town fields. The Kidwelly area (and later lordship) was granted to Bishop Roger of Salisbury in 1106 who established the borough (Avent 1991, 167), but it passed between Anglo-Norman and Welsh hands during the 12th- and early 13th-century. More settled conditions prevailed during the later 13th- and 14th-century under the tenure of the Chaworths and, from 1327, the Duchy of Lancaster. At least the western half of the area appears to have lain within the estate of Muddlescwm, a holding just to the east within the foreignry of the lordship, as in 1487 'one rood at Le Halwey' (Holloway) was granted to William Howe and Joan, his wife, by Trahaiarn ap Morgan of Muddlescwm (Jones 1985, 17). Kidwelly's industrialisation through the 18th- and 19th-century has also left evidence within the landscape in the form of a railway line and a former brick and silica works. The area is crossed by the A484 Kidwelly Bypass and some late 20th century development has occurred along side roads, but the overall impression is one of dereliction.

Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
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Description and essential historic landscape components

A small area of fairly small fields lying between 5 metres and 20 metres, representing a system of former strip fields associated with the Medieval borough of Kidwelly. The former strips are most pronounced to the west, around Holloway Farm which has Medieval origins; they are less apparent to the east where there has been some reorganisation of boundaries. Boundaries throughout are earth banks, now overgrown and becoming derelict, dividing fields of unimproved pasture which are becoming neglected. There is no woodland. Kidwelly bypass which crosses this area has led to further fragmentation of the field system.

A former spur from the GWR main West Wales line, which was established in the 1870s to convey ore and stone from the quarries on Mynyddygarreg, and tinplate from the former works east of Kidwelly (Ludlow 1991, 84), runs through the area. The 'Dinas' brick and silica works formerly lay to the west of the area (Ordnance Survey 6" First Edition, Sheet LIII. NE, 1891). The only other archaeological site recorded in the area is a former Post-Medieval smithy on the A484.

There are few buildings. Holloway was mentioned in 1487 and its name may suggest Medieval origins for the east-west road upon which it lies; the house is still standing but no early elements have been noted.

A historic landscape area of long, narrow enclosures distinct from Kidwelly town to the north and west, the larger irregular fields to the east and the marsh/former marsh to the south.