Church Micro 7139...Margam Abbey. Multi-cache
Church Micro 7139...Margam Abbey.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Another in our series of Church Micros in the South Wales area.
Not within the Church precincts, so please don't search in the grounds.
Parking available nearby, area is overlooked so stealth will be required,
BYOP and tweezers.
Margam Abbey was a centre of Christian worship for more than a thousand years, when Monks of the Celtic Church had a Monastery here. Their timber or wattle buildings were swept away when Robert the Consul, Norman Earl of Gloucester, granted the land to Cistercian Monks from the French abbey of Chirvaux for the founding of a daughter house. The Abbey took 40 years to build and was the largest and wealthiest in Wales in the 12th century. The exterior was extensively altered during renovations in the nineteenth century, but the deeply recessed doorway, flanked by banded shafts carrying carved capitals, belongs to the late Norman period around 1175-80, so do the three round-headed windows above. The present Parish Church was formerly the Monastic nave, inside the Church, the massive piers which divide the building into six bays have the simplicity and dignity of Norman work at its best. Those with an eye for detail may spot the bar-holes either side of the doorway, which enabled a stout oak beam to be thrust home to keep out intruders. The Church was originally 272 ft long but is now only 115 ft, two bays at the east end having been cut off at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The south aisle contains tombs of the Mansels, the family who acquired Margam in the 16th century, and the west windows are the work of William Morris the Victorian artist, writer and visionary.
The Chapter House, the gem of Margam's crown, ideally proportioned and displaying the purest form of Gothic art, this magnificent building was virtually the business room of the Abbey. Rivalled only by its vanished counterpart at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, it is twelve-sided, although the interior, once lined by the monks’ stalls, is circular.
The above Co-Ords take you to a War Memorial, only use the text referring to the
Chaplain to the Territorial Force.
A, 5th number + 13th number.
B, 7th number - 9th number.
C, 2nd number + 11th number.
D, 18th number.
E, 1st number + 22nd number.
F, 21st number.
The final cache can be found at:
N51 33.ABC W003 44.DEF.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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