FROM the churchyard the cottages on the green, under their guardian trees, seem like an illustration in a Beatrix Potter fantasy.

I stood and viewed over the churchyard cross and the clipped yews, the church of Rockfield, dedicated to St Cenedlon. This saint with the tuneful name, lived 15 centuries ago, with 48 brothers and sisters in the ancestral home of their father, Brychan. Strange it is to think of one of the girls – our own Gwladys – snatched from her Bronllys by the wild pirate-prince Gwynllyw, and of this other, Cenedlon setting up her cell here, near the well of Rockfield. And did not Gwladys live in a cell near the Lady’s Well at Pont Ebbw?

Nave, porch and chancel at St Cenedlon’s are reconstructions, but the tower and its superstructure are original. Up in the wooden lantern are three bells, with the following inscriptions: (1) Memento Mori, January 9, 1655; (2) Soli Deo Detur Gloria, January 9 1655; (3) Feare God, Robbat Upton, Jon Williams, churchwardens, 1669, I.P.

Unusual it is to find ecclesiastical activity in 1655! Elsewhere in our land donors and churchwardens seem to have come out of hibernation only when the Merry Monarch appeared in 1660!

With its massive masonry, timbers, louvres and lancets, this tower is the south-eastern link in a chain of handsome structures which stretches up into mid-Wales, and includes primitive Cwmyoy and assured Skenfrith.

Within the church I found the font in the tower room, a location unusual, but not unique in our county. The ancient font survives on the floor of the north aisle, which is separated from the nave by a three-bay arcade.

Under the communion table is a stone slab six feet long. A long Latin inscription on it commemorates the Rev Matthew Pritchard who died in 1795, and was the priest at Perthir, the venerable home of Powells and the Lorimers. The priest officiated in Perth-hir chapel, which was dedicated to St Catherine, the patron saint of Monmouth Girls’ School.

The boys of Monmouth School will be interested to learn that in 1795 the vicar of Rockfield, the Rev Thomas Hughes, was usher at their school, while in later years another vicar , the Rev George Monnington, was headmaster.

In the north aisle are windows portraying the saints Christopher, Athanasius, Mattais, Nicholas, Dubricius and Cecilia, each with an appropriate symbol.

And when I returned the church key to the Scottish owners of the adjacent house I saw an artist’s dream - garden flowers of June, a perfect lawn, and the stone house designed not merely for comfort, but also to add beauty to a beautiful setting.

Continue along the B4347 and turn left after about two miles. and then take a right turn for half a mile. Park and walk down a lane to reach Llangattock-vibon-Avel church.

Seemingly buried in a coppice of tall trees we espied the red pyramidal roof of a church tower (Llangattock-vibon-Avel). Up high on the left loomed a vast house. My son Robert counted 29 chimneys, and when a lady of Llangattock instructed us that this imposing dwelling had its own staterooms and was originally designed as a dower-house to the Hendre, we were suitably impressed.

Yet it was the church with the red roof that attracted us. From the far end of the big churchyard, the view was of a hillside sanctuary stereoscoped against massive trees and accompanied by a well-designed memorial cross in granite.

Three-light Tudor windows were a later addition to a tower designed obviously for defence. While I was sketching, Robert essayed to climb the ladder to inspect the bells but had to forgo that pleasure because of the frail ladder. Instead he explored the memorials within.

This remote country church was one of nine churches in our county dedicated to St Cadoc, son of Gwynllyw. We have already visited Rockfield church dedicated to St Cenedlon, aunt of St Cadoc. Both these churches were among the gifts made by Withenock of Monmouth to the monks of St Florence to maintain the priory at Monmouth, and the manor house above Llangattock church was built on the site of a grange of the same priory.

The Evans’ memorials in the church recall the great family who lived for centuries in the old manor house. Thomas and John Evans, then ‘ap Ievan’, were of Llangattock and lived there before 1600, while an interesting brass on the south wall of the church commemorates ‘Thomas Evans of Llangattacke-vibon-Avel.’ who died in 1629.

‘Hee liveing, loucing and belov’d, now dead,

Of all lamented is. His wife her Head

Rich lost their loue, the poore their life, his spirit

Left, here his corps; and heaven doth inherit.’

Sonorous Latin inscriptions are to later members of the same family.

The family associated above others with the church and countryside is the Rolls family of the Hendre. On the south side of the chancel is the Rolls chapel, and their memorials are to be found in the chancel and a south window. The rebuilding of the church, except the tower, in 1875 was undertaken by the family; their tombs are between the church and the manor.

Of the Rolls memorials I noted especially those to Lord Llangattock, killed in the battle of the Somme, and Charles Stewart Rolls, ‘pioneer of motoring and aviation, killed flying at Bournemouth, July, 1910’, whose statue graces Agincourt Square in Monmouth.Robert had discovered a Welsh inscription on a porch memorial, which was to James Water, A.D. 1690 and read:

‘Gweddin bawb ar y Jesu hwn ddyc on yn hawdd... a dangos ynni gwir olevni pryd dde y gwiwion yu gweli. W.H.’

The translation, I am told, presents difficulties. I shall be glad if a Welsh expert will enlighten me on this, as well as on the extraordinary ‘Vibon Avel’ attached to the church name Llangattock.

My smaller illustration is copied from the memorial stone to Alice Evans who died in 1706. it shows how a Monmouthshire monumental mason portrayed an angel, complete with wings, fleurs-de-lis and other emblems.

Continue along the B4347 to reach Newcastle.

Behind the farm house (at Newcastle) rises a tall tump, tree clad. Here was Castell Meirch (the Castle of the Stallion) used, so Bradney assumes, as a Norman outpost of Monmouth Castle. Part of the moat remains filled with water, but on the summit of the mound we found to our horror, a large concrete tank. Our comments in English and Welsh had best remain unrecorded,but I find it difficult to imagine the barbaric ignorance which would permit such a crime. Here, on the heights, with noble views of our old land in every direction with over a thousand years of history beneath it, a concrete tank! As soon, I should have thought, erect a galvanised iron roof over Stonehenge.