|
Bosherston - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
BOSHERSTON, a parish, in the hundred of Castlemartin, union and county of Pembroke, South Wales, 6 miles (S. by W.) from Pembroke; containing 225 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the shore of the Bristol Channel, by which it is bounded on the south; and the rocks on this part of the coast are worn, by the repeated action of the sea, into caverns of considerable depth, and of singular and romantic appearance. Of these, Bosherston Meer, extending about a quarter of a mile from the sea, is the most remarkable: at the entrance it presents only a small opening on the surface of the ground, but gradually it expands into a spacious cavern of increasing depth, which has never yet been explored. Previously to the commencement of a storm, the confined air is much agitated, and the most terrific noises issue from the cleft, which are heard at a great distance: during the violence of the tempest immense columns of spray are occasionally thrown up. The Stack Rocks, on the coast, are frequented in summer by innumerable sea-birds of various tribes. By far the greater part of the land in the parish is inclosed and in a state of cultivation, but there is a considerable expanse of open downs.
The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £11. 6. 8.; patron, Earl Cawdor: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £110. 10., and there is a glebe of sixty-five acres, valued at £62. 10. per annum; also a glebe-house. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, was handsomely ornamented by John Campbell, Esq., a member of the Cawdor family. The children in the parish have access to a day school in Stackpool-Elidur, supported by Earl Cawdor.
A little to the east of Bosherston Meer, and also within the parish, is the hermitage of St. Gawen, situated in a fissure of the rock apparently formed by some violent convulsion, about half-way in the cliff between the summit and the base, and only a short distance from high-water mark. A flight of steps, rudely cut in the rock, forms a descent to a "chapel," about twenty feet in length and twelve feet wide, with an altar formed of a coarse stone slab, harmonizing with the rude and simple character of the place. On one side a door, opening from the chapel, leads into a small cell, cut in the solid rock, and in form resembling the human body, which is said to have been the solitary retreat of St. Gawen. Beneath the hermitage is St. Gawen's well, held in great repute for the miraculous efficacy in the cure of diseases superstitiously ascribed to it. The scenery around this sequestered spot is of the wildest and most romantic character: large fragments of rock are scattered in confused heaps in every direction, and huge masses of rugged cliffs, threatening to detach themselves every moment from the higher precipices, which impend over the seaworn base of the rock, give to the scene an appalling grandeur of effect. Gawen, from whom the promontory of St. Gawen's Head derives its name, though now popularly regarded as a saint and an anchorite, is said to have been a nephew of the renowned King Arthur, and one of the knights of his Round Table; and Hoole, in one of the notes attached to his translation of Orlando Furioso, asserts that on "a breach of the sea, near Milford Haven, is a natural rock, shaped into a chapel, which tradition reports to have been the burying-place of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's nephew."
|
01646 661311
01646 661660 
Admission Charges
Address
Buses
Credit Cards
Cricket
Disabled Facilities
Film
Food
Parks/Gardens
Golf
Hotels
Libraries
Opening Hours
Places of Worship
Shops/Gifts
Taxis:
Tourist Information
Vets
Web Address
Illustration(s) or photograph(s)