“The charming valley, surrounded with pleasant hills, which shut it out of the world beyond, the hardly audible ripple of the flowing streamlet, and the absence of any prospect save of the enclosing hills, alike tell us that this is the site of a monastery for monks of the Cistercian Order. They would alone be sufficient to record it were the voice of history silent and the architectural arrangements untraceable. At the back of the dormitory fireplace is a narrow room parallel with the former. It is probably the muniment room, while I assign to the sacristan another small apartment at right angles, since it communicated by a passage over the vaulting of the south transept chapels with the niche before alluded to. The cloister space has no trace of the cloister buildings, but from the position of the corbels for the roof-timbers, &c., and from the absence of the remains, it is probable that here, as in many cases elsewhere, they were formed of wood. The foundation of Valle Crucis Abbey and its date have indeed been subjects of much doubt. Sir W. Dugdale, on the authority of Leland, rightly ascribed the foundation to Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor, Prince of Powis, and assumed that this was about A.D. 1200. We are indebted to an associate, Mr. Morris C. Jones, the active hon. secretary of the Powys Land Club, for a discovery of no small importance with reference to the history of the Abbey. By a process of close reasoning he has demonstrated that one of the charters supposed by Dugdale to have referred to another building, in reality is the foundation charter of this Abbey, granted by Madog. We learn by this discovery that Valle Crucis was an offshot from the less celebrated but parent Abbey of Strada Marcella, and that a few monks of that house were the first occupants here. Philip is spoken of as being then the prior, showing that before the granting of the charter much preliminary work had been done. We may accordingly with confidence consider him as the first prior, and place him at the commencement of the scanty list of those whose names have been recorded. The foundation charter is undated, and we are therefore left no nearer to the verification of Dugdale’s guess, while Mr. Jones is led in support of his argument to devote much of his reasoning to prove that this spot was known then, and later by the old-sounding title of Llan Egwest. It may be worth while here to say that one of the latest seals of the Abbey extant, in the Herald’s office of a date early in the sixteenth century, has this name on its legend, thus indicating that even at this late date Valle Crucis was known by its original name. The buildings of the Abbey afford a perfect model, so far as they remain, of the arrangements of a Cistercian House, and we will survey these in order. But it might be as well to announce than since no correct plan of these remains has yet been published, the council of this association has determined to have engraved one which was carefully prepared by the late Mr. S. Buckler, and which exists among many other papers of considerable interest which he bequeathed to the British Museum. The church is of the usual cruciform type, an aisleless presbytery, transepts with two chapels forming an eastern aisle to each. There has been a low square tower over the crossing, and a nave of six bays with two side aisles. The extreme length is 165 feet, length of transept from north to south 98 feet, width of nave and aisles 67 feet 6 inches, width of chancel 30 feet, and of transept 30 feet. It will be seen that the east and west gables are all but perfect, and that the north and part of the south walls of the chancel still remain. Also those of the south transept and of the north aisle of the nave. The south wall of the nave is almost perfect, but is hidden by the luxuriant ivy, which here and elsewhere adds so greatly to the beauty of the building in its state of ruin. The bases of the nave piers are traceable—thanks to the careful clearance by Viscount Dungannon and Mr. Wynne in 1854. The east end and the transepts are designed in a severe style of the First Pointed architecture, and the peculiar plaster buttresses of the exterior are more curious than beautiful; the treatment certainly indicates some local influence, but whether we should consider it as derivable from Dublin, as a late writer suggests, or as evidence of a Welsh school of architecture, is open to question. The Principality is full of evidence of peculiar treatment of architectural detail, both of early and of late work, which seems to afford evidence that the old Welsh builders were not content to copy the style prevalent in England, but impressed upon them their own peculiar treatment. The lofty eastern lancets spring from a height, which must always have been, for the size of the church, remarkably little above the pavement, and there is just a trace of a moulded arched label over the two upper lancets. This arch probably indicated the line of the presbytery, whether of arched boarding or of vaulting. The corbel table around the presbytery and transept walls is bold and peculiar, and is of two patterns. The shafts internally afford some evidence probably of an intention of vaulting the ceiling, which was never carried out, and the sloping line of stone visible inside and out in the walls seems to be indicative that the west end of the chancel was once covered by a hipped roof. This could only be prior to the erection of the central tower. The other sloping line crossing is that of the roof of the sacristan’s passage to the loop. The slit on the south side is from a curious little room and passage at the back of the monks’ dormitory. A great many guesses have been made to determine the use of this passage and the loop-hole, probably from the abbot’s oriel in St. Bartholomew’s, London; it has been called the abbot’s closet. It is, however, that for the sacristan, from which he would watch the perpetual lamp of the sanctuary at night. The high altar has not stood touching the east wall, but away from it, as at Fountain’s Abbey and many other places. The aumbry in the south wall has a semicircular arch, and has been double. The bases of the four altars of the transept chapels are very apparent, and they have been covered with arcading. They are attached, as is usual in these positions, to the east walls. The intermediate arches dividing the chapels have probably been filled in only to a certain height, to allow of the picturesque effect being preserved. Each of these altars is furnished with a piscina. The northern altar of the northern transept has a detached pillar piscina. The others have lockers in the wall in several instances, and the elegant and early carving of the brackets of the piscina will be observed with interest. There are two floor drains to the north-east chapel. The remaining arches of the transepts are designed in a very severe style, and the capitals are a tradition of some building of earlier date. The borders of the arches are simple rectangles without even a chamfer, but the effect is excellent. We may in the sheltered stonework of these chapels observe that the whole surface of the wrought stone has been covered with a film of plastering upon which coloured decorations are still traceable here and there. This use of colour was forbidden in Cistercian houses, and I am for one glad to think that in some cases their rules were sometimes more honoured in their breach than in their observance. The same is observable at Old Cleeve Abbey. These traces of colour have not, I believe, hitherto been noticed, and another feature of interest may have attention directed to it. Many of the stones have masons’ marks. I collected readily a dozen or more different examples, besides others slightly different or reversed, and they deserve comparison with those that have been noted elsewhere. It has sometimes been stated that all the buildings are of the same date, but a small amount of inspection will assure us that the east end is the oldest, say of a date within the first twenty years following that of the foundation; the transepts a little later, and the west front, as represented by its style, about 1,260. The ground floor of the conventual buildings is of the same date as the transepts, the style possibly older, but the dormitory floor above is at least 150 years later than the foundation, since we cannot assign an earlier date than the middle of the fourteenth century. The square-headed doorways have the same flowing mouldings as the windows; at this time the arches and flowing tracery of the chapter-house were added into the older openings. The western lancet of the south transept is filled in with tracery of the fifteenth century date into the older opening. There are traces of the use of stonework of earlier date than in these buildings. The fireplace in the muniment room has an inscription which has often been given, which shows that it was once part of a tombstone. The sill of the little unglazed niche looking from the room at the end of the dormitory into it has been part of an incised slab. The present rough roof of the dormitory is modern, but the water tables in the south transept gable show that it is of the same pitch as the original one. The door in the south side of the refectory is an unusual feature. It was probably for hoisting up the trusses of straw for the monks’ beds, and for the passage of articles which could not be brought up the narrow day stairs. Several rectangular apartments are indicated, and it is probable that the refectory extended north and south. Just a trace of a wall at right angles to the day-room going west may be traced among the farm appliances at this corner, and also an angle buttress. All the walls are constructed of their dark blue slaty stone, with dressings of reddish freestone, all of great durability and excellent workmanship. The main windows of the church are not rebated for glass, and it is probable that they were filled in with stained glass secured to the iron stanchion bars, which have been numerous, and wedged into the stonework. Since these would not be furnished with open casements, the ventilation of the building has been assisted by several small square apertures, the original putlog holes of the builders, but which are formed quite through the walls. The income of Valle Crucis at the dissolution was £188 clear, and £214 3s. 5d. gross, and the largest of any Cistercian house in Wales; that of the parent abbey of Ystrad Marchel was only £64 14s. 2d. The surrender was in the twenty-sixth Henry VIII., and was thus among the lesser monasteries.”
Commenting upon the foregoing, a lady well versed in the history of the Abbey writes that “Valle Crucis Abbey was founded, in 1199, by Madoc ap Gruffydd Maelor, Lord of Bromfield and Yale, for Cistercian monks. Powell, in his History of Wales, makes no mention of its having any connection whatever with Strata Marcella, founded by his ancestor, Owen Cyfeiliog, Prince of Powis, fifty years or more previously; and no remark is made of Valle Crucis having had any of its revenues, as none of the charters of Valle Crucis prove in any way that such was the case. It would take thirty years at least to build it, and, of course, changes would occur in that time. The architecture is in this case an authority to go by: the east end is the first transition from Norman to Early English; and a few alterations have been made in the Church, the circular window at the west end being of a later date and put in by, Adam the Abbot about 1340. The lancet window in the south aisle has had tracing put in subsequently, but not in the fifteenth century. What remains of the conventual buildings is the Chapter-House, and the whole barn, and one of the dormitories. The Cloisters which formed the square in front are all destroyed. The Kitchen, Refectory, and Guest Hall were on the south side of the Cloisters, which are also destroyed. The Abbey was purchased by Mathew Trevor in 1620–1625, not from such a person as Cneifiwr Glâs, whom Mr. Pennant calls a low-lived partizan of Cromwell’s (I don’t believe that Cromwell, as Protector of England, would have companionship with such a low fellow). I have seen the conveyance for purchase between Sir Thomas Trevor, his Majesty (James I.), Lord Chief Justice, and Mathew Trevor, of Trevor. I have this moment the panels of the pew doors in Llantysilio Church, dated M.T. 1630, in my possession. The Abbey was not dissolved before 1538, and it was destroyed at the same time.”
By the removal of the rubbish in 1851, under the praiseworthy superintendence of Viscount Dungannon, by which the whole of the area was cleared, leaving the pavement and sides as they formerly existed, some interesting discoveries were made; among others, the tombs of benefactors buried in front of the high altar; a half-length figure of a knight in chain armour—Jenaf ap Adam of Trevor—and some fragments of his wife Myfanwy’s tombstone. Another of a lady, with the following inscription:—
“Hic Jacet Gweirca filia Owein cuj. Animæ propicietur Deus. A.M. 1290.”
Another tombstone has a wolf on a shield, with an imperfect inscription:—
“Edwardus filius Yo.”
This stone is curiously carved with a chase. A stone coffin was also found in one of the side chapels; the bases of five altars; a stone pulpit base, also those of the pillars that divided the nave and aisles; a few pieces of painted glass, and encaustic tiles. A double benetoir, or holy water-vase, is in the arch near the tomb in the north transept.
Previous to these discoveries, while digging in the farm-yard adjoining for drainage purposes, at a short depth from the surface, were found the remains of eleven men, in a very small compass of ground, which goes far to prove that this was the common cemetery of the monks; and also a wedge-like stone, having carved on its front a hand, holding a vine or olive-branch, bearing fruit. This stone was removed to Plas Newydd.
In this Abbey was also buried Iolo Goch, Lord of Llecryd, Owain Glyndwr’s bard.
The conventual buildings were re-roofed in 1878, after having been sadly neglected for many years.