History of Llantwit Major or Llanilltud Fawr

The people of Llantwit Major, or Llanilltud Fawr, live in a place which has been occupied for over 3000 years. Bronze Age and Iron Age people, and the Romans lived here before the Celtic Church made this a place of national importance, but the oldest buildings now seen in the town were built by the Normans.

For the visitor, the best place to start a tour of the town is at the Tourist Office underneath the steps of the Town Hall, which interestingly was never a town hall. Until parish councils were created towards the end of the 19th century, Llantwit Major had no control over its own affairs.When the Normans, led by Robert Fitzhamon, conquered Glamorgan, most of the Vale was partitioned among the Norman knights, but Fitzhamon, who became Earl of Gloucester and Lord of Glamorgan, kept Llantwit Major himself, and set up a feudal manor to provide his garrison in Cardiff Castle with grain. Thus Llantwit Major was ruled by the Lord of Glamorgan, but it never had a charter or a castle. The Town Hall, said to have been built by Gilbert de Clare, was a manorial court, where the affairs of the manor were decided. The present Town Hall was rebuilt in the late 16th century.




The Town Square

The town square has at its centre an old preaching cross, which is now the war memorial. Around it is a group of Tudor buildings, erected when the town had to be rebuilt following a visit with fire and sword by Owain Glyndwr soon after 1400.

About 1440, a new family came to Llantwit Major, the Raglans or Raglands. Robert Raglan built a house which is now the Old White Hart public house, making it the oldest continually inhabited house in the town. Then about 1465, Raglan built a new house, which in time was used by the church as a presbytery, and which in 1874 was extended and became the village school, now the "Old School" used by community groups.

The Old Swan Inn on the other side of the square is another Raglan house. There is a tradition that this pub was at one time a mint. This dates from the Civil War when the owner, Edward Maddocks, struck brass tokens for his workers. The Old Swan was was also a popular inn for American visitors before the 1939-45 war when St. Donats Castle was owned by William Randolph Hearst.

In College Street near the church is an attractive 16th century building known as Plymouth House. This was the town house of the Stradlings of St. Donats, and it then passed to the family of the Earl of Plymouth.

In West Street is the remains of a house that was only occupied for a hundred years. Llantwit Place or the Old Place (often called Llantwit Major Castle) was built in 1596 for Edmund Vann, but before the end of the 17th century the family had died out and the house was abandoned. It is now a dangerous ruin.

Great House or Ty Mawr

At the northern end of the town is Great House or Ty Mawr, which has hardly changed since it was built around 1600 as a home for the Nicholl family, the richest people in the town. Before the 1939-45 war, the house was abandoned and was in a ruinous state, but it has since been rebuilt in its original style.



The Roman Villa, Caer Mead

The Normans gave the church, with some land, to Tewkesbury Abbey, and overlooking the church are the remains of the abbey grange (or farm) - a 13th century Gatehouse and, in the filed opposite, a Dove Cote. A Tithe Barn stood here until the end of the 19th century.





The Catholic Church of Our Lady and St. Illtud is a modern building in Ham Lane East. After the Reformation there was no place for Catholics to worship in Llantwit Major until 1921 when the chapel in Ham (now destroyed) was opened for public use. The first Catholic church was opened in 1951 replaced by the present building in 1965.

Tabernacle Calvinistic Methodist Church was opened in 1822 in Methodist Lane, while the Ebeneezer United Reformed Church stands in Colhugh Street. Baptists worship in Bethel, opened for "Particular Baptists" in 1830.