Historic churches and other Christian sites in South Wales

Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites Survey (2002-2004)

This was a pan-Wales project in which all four Welsh Archaeological Trusts looked at potential pre-Norman Christian sites in their home areas. In the initial stage, each site was measured against a uniform set of criteria to see whether it was likely to fall into this category. This was followed up by visiting selected sites to obtain more information on the ground.

Download the project reports here:

At the end of the project, a conference was organised by the University of Bangor where each Trust gave a paper on a theme from the project that had particular resonance in its own area. These were published in 2009, in The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 29 / Society for Church Archaeology Monograph 1. GGAT's paper is called ´Continuity and Renewal of Monastic Landholding in Wales before and after the Anglo-Norman Conquest´

Medieval ecclesiastic sculpture in Glamorgan (2010-2011)

Whereas there had been a programme of scheduling churchyard crosses in Gwent in the early 2000s, there had been no similar recent work in Glamorgan. There were more than a hundred separate entries on the HER for unscheduled crosses, or fragments of crosses, and other carved stones in churchyards and other open-air locations in Glamorgan, particularly in the Vale, which were in danger of weathering and other damage. They included some medieval wayside crosses that had been brought into the churchyard from elsewhere in the parish, in order to protect them.

Download the project reports here: