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two-mile drive landed the party at Ewenny Priory. Colonel Turber 

 vill, notwithstanding the early hour of arrival, was ready to 

 receive the members and to show them over the Priory Church and 

 grounds. Entering by the S. door into the chancel it was at 

 once seen that no ordinary hand had been busy with the restora- 

 tion of this perfect specimen of early Norman work. The 

 Presbytery or chancel is simply perfect and one of the purest 

 specimens of Norman work in S. Wales. The floor has been 

 recently covered with encaustic tiles, modern reproductions of 

 the various coats of arms belonging to the noble families of which 

 traces have from time to time been discovered, the three-light 

 Norman window at the E. end has been opened and various 

 other restorations recently carried out. From Colonel Turber- 

 vill's description and from the account of the Priory by Mr. 

 Freeman in the Archseologica Cambrensis, 1857, the following 

 history was gathered : — 



It was originally a Norman fortress built by William de Londres, 

 one of the twelve knights who with Fitz Hamon invaded 

 Glamorgan and who built Ogmore Castle. In 1141 it was added 

 as a cell to the Abbey of St. Peter at Glo'ster. The Priory 

 belonged to the Benedictines and after the dissolution passed to 

 the Came family and afterwards by marriage to the Turbervills. 

 Freeman considers the Priory Church highly remarkable on 

 several grounds, and to be one of the best specimens of a fortified 

 ecclesiastical building — the union of Castle and Monastry in the 

 same structure— and that it exists very nearly as it was originally 

 built. The Church was cruciform with central tower very massive 

 — when perfect there was a nave with N. aisle — N. and S. 

 transepts, latter only now remaining with eastern vaulted chapels 

 now destroyed, and presbytery. The nave originally formed and 

 now forms the parish Church, the choir, the presbytery and their 

 appendages formed the church of the Priory. The vaulting of 

 the Presbytery, Freeman writes, is one of the rare instances of 

 Romanesque on so large a scale in England. Over the two 



