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Penmaen Dewi

283 WAUN CLYN COCH

GRID REFERENCE: SN105315
AREA IN HECTARES: 131.8

Historic Background
A small area of modern Pembrokeshire, on the southern flanks of Mynydd Preseli, within the medieval Cantref Cemaes. Cemaes was brought under Anglo-Norman control in c.1100 by the Fitzmartins who retained it, as the Barony of Cemaes, until 1326, when they were succeeded by the Audleys. The Barony was conterminous with the later Hundred of Cemais, which was created in 1536, but many feudal rights and obligations persisted, some until as late as 1922. The character area largely belonged to the grange of Nigra Grangia (Mynachlog-ddu) which was, in 1118, granted by William Fitzmartin to the Tironians of St Dogmaels Abbey. The grange was of considerable extent, comprising 5 carucates which were worth £8 15s 6d in 1535. However, its assessment at only half a knight's fee suggests that much of it, including the Waun Clyn Coch character area, was unenclosed moorland pasture during the medieval period. The area continued to be held, like most of the southeastern part of the Barony of Cemaes, under Welsh systems of tenure. It appears to have remained unenclosed, and for the most part unsettled, until the 19th century. It was still unenclosed at the time of the tithe surveys of 1841 and 1846, but fields and two farms appear to have been established soon afterwards. The farms had been abandoned by the mid 20th-century.

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.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221

Description and essential historic landscape components
Waun Clyn Coch historic landscape character area lies between approximately 280m and 400m in an open basin which has a sheltered south- and southeastern-facing aspect. The area is divided into several large fields with smaller enclosures around abandoned farms. Field boundaries consist of stone and earth banks or stone-faced banks. There are no hedges, but occasional, isolated bushes testify to their former presence. It is a treeless landscape, apart from small stands close to an abandoned farm. Land-use comprises improved pasture with wet, rushy and boggy ground in hollows and close to streams.

Former buildings are restricted to the two abandoned mid-19th century farms.

Recorded archaeology is limited to a possible neolithic chambered tomb, two possible cairns or barrows and a scheduled iron age enclosure. To the north, west and south this area has a very clear boundary with the open moorland of Mynydd Preseli. To the east, definition is less clear, as this area merges with the lower-lying settled farmland of Mynachlog-ddu.

Sources: Dyfed Archaeological Trust 1997; Howells 1987; Lewis 1969; Llangolman tithe map and apportionment, 1841; Monachlogddu tithe map and apportionment, 1846; Rees 1932.