The cathedral choir at St Davids was the first cathedral choir in the United Kingdom to use girls and men as the main choir, rather than boys and men. (Salisbury Cathedral introduced boys and girls earlier on an equal basis.
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Some of the old spell comes back when, after breakfast, we walk to Porth y Twr, an ancient gateway in the wall of the close, and continue down the steep path to the south door of the cathedral. Even the sign just inside the door suggesting a $:1 contribution from each adult doesn't spoil the effect -- a sudden lift to the spirit -- of the pale, lavender-gray nave: the majestic succession of round-topped arches the unpainted wooden ceiling and the views through clear glass windows of out-to-sea clouds and a steep, green strip of churchyard.
This cathedral, roughly a quarter of the size of Canterbury or Chartres, has something they will never have: a powerful innocence. Not an austerely Protestant kind of innocence, although St. David's is low church. Looking around, you realize that the place is full of gorgeous ornament. The gray Irish oak ceiling is carved so elegantly you could lie down in the aisle and gaze up at it all morning. There's a lacy stone rood screen between you and the choir, so aerated by 14th-century sculptors that it doesn't make you feel shut out, as many rood screens do. One huge, ugly tomb contains a Tudor ancestor, Edmund. ('It's a bit in the way, but he saved us during the Reformation, you know, being Henry VIII's grandfather,' explained the Dean, the next day.) But the overwhelming feeling is of unadorned clarity, openness, peacefulness, innocence.
The close outside is innocent, too, even with the grandeur of the huge openwork ruin of the bishop's palace next door, separated from the cathedral by a tiny river, the Alun, which trickles through the close. The bushy, pinkish-purple flower valerian is growing wild in gaps in the crumbling close wall, in the palace arches, adding a frivolous touch in a matching color to the cathedral's severe, purple sandstone west front. Black jackdaws peck around the sunken gravestones. Of their medieval ancestors Giraldus Cambrensis, a 12th-century Welsh cleric and writer wrote: 'The jackdaws in the cathedral have become so accustomed to kindly treatment from the local priests that . . . . They never fly away from anyone dressed in black.'
The Dean lives in the pale green Victorian deanery, across the path from a field full of black Welsh bullocks, but the archdeaconry, next to the bishop's palace, is inhabited by the succentor, the canonry by the organist-choir master and the treasury by Nona Rees, a friend who is the cathedral librarian. In her garden wall is a stone seat, where an angel told St. Patrick that his mission was to be in Ireland, not Wales. She is the author of a new booklet about St. David.
'St. David was of royal lineage on both sides,' Nona relates, as we sit having lunch in the garden of the Old Cross Hotel. 'His mother was raped by his father, a prince called Sant. King Arthur was probably his great-uncle.' We are eating fresh crab sandwiches.
This garden faces the tall medieval stone cross that stands in the center of St. David's village, once the marketplace. The village, high above the close, is inhabited by about 1,500 people. But it's called a city because all cathedral settlements are called cities. It has a nice self-forgetful look. There are plenty of perfect little flower baskets hanging over the doors of old color-washed cottages, but some of the gardens are overgrown riots of valerian and honeysuckle. St. David's seems to shrug its shoulders tolerantly at the few drearily modern houses on its outskirts, the video games in the pubs and the infestation of identically shaped white round-backed plastic chairs that afflicts all of the known world.
We drive the quarter of a mile over to the cliffside pasture where David's mother, St. Non, gave birth to him in a spot that, judging from the variety of menacing-looking standing stones and ruined walls around it, seems to have been a holy place since Britain became an island. Circumventing some black-and-white cattle, we peer into St. Non's Well, fed by a spring that is supposed to have healing powers, having gushed forth when St. David was born. We add a new penny to the others on the shallow bottom. Nona says that some pre-Christian Celts used to put human heads in these wells to improve the water with the heads' wisdom. Queen Elizabeth II's head on the coin is the modern substitute. Three teen-age girls with backpacks lounge beside the well. 'There are always well maidens at these holy wells,' explains Nona.
The layers of myth, history and religion that enrich this land, and confuse the visitor, are an open book to Nona. She has a sharp eye for elements of the old multigod Celtic religion that were woven into Christian ceremonies. Earlier, pointing out the furious open-mouthed stone head of a fertility goddess, Sheelagh Nagig, set into the wall of a local church, she'd explained it was once part of a statue, 'but the unseemly bits were knocked off.'
Nona is named for St. Non, as are other Nons, Nonas and Anonas in the region. She has that 'I'll show you worlds you never knew existed' look of Lady Mary Balfour's long ago, and like Lady Mary, Nona is small, wispy and dedicated to the simple life. But not as dedicated as her beloved St. David. The regime in his monastery was so strict that monks were yoked to the plows instead of oxen, and as a penance David used to recite Psalms standing in cold water up to his neck.
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We walk along a little of a narrow footpath, out on the cliff edge, that is part of the Pembrokeshire National Park, extending 186 miles around the whole Pembrokeshire peninsula, of which this, St. David's peninsula or Dewisland, is the northwestern headland. Three years ago, farther east on this path, a middle-aged couple, out hiking, was found murdered, no one knows by whom. Some suspect the Irish Republican Army; weapons traced to them were discovered, buried, near the scene. Right here the height is so dizzying that we just sneak a few glances down at the huge cruel rocks jutting out of the clear green water, then retreat to the other side of the path, where blackbirds tweet joyfully in the gorse bushes. The atmosphere has a strange, lighted-from-within kind of brightness, all the way out to sea. Turner walked around here, painting watercolors.
At 9:30 on Sunday morning there is a communion service in English in the nave of the cathedral, and one in Welsh in the Lady chapel at the easternmost end. I choose the Welsh. The Dean, the Very Rev. Bertie Lewis, conducts the service for a congregation of 10 in this strange, rhythmic language that, although written with many consonants, sounds as if it's composed entirely of vowels. Almighty God, for instance, is Hollalluog Dduw and the double 'L' in Welsh isn't really a consonant, more like the gentle wash of a wave across the sand. During the sermon, Dean Lewis makes little lateral chopping motions across the lectern; from this I guess, correctly, that his text is that of the loaves and the fishes.
At the 11 o'clock service, the carefully respectable congregation is enlivened here and there by young couples in blue jeans and hiking boots. The red-robed choir sounds to me especially otherworldIy, singing responses written by an Elizabethan composer, Thomas Tomkins, who was born and bred in St. David's. I'm surprised to see that this, the main cathedral choir, consists of men and young girls. There's a new boys' choir, and an adult choir, but these are for extra services.
The Dean is not too good to be true, as you might think when seeing him in his green-and-gold vestments. He has a quiet voice with a Welsh cadence and a white beard, and he seems gentle through and through, not just ecclesiastically gentle. For him the magic of this place clearly outweighs his administrative problems -- the small cathedral staff of six, badgers in the cemetery -- and he doesn't rule out pre-Christian contributions to its holiness. 'It seems as if God's presence is in some places -- and without being too pious and spiritualistic about the whole thing, God seems to have chosen this spot. Now, I wonder, is that why David settled here?'
But there are those in St. David's for whom the cathedral holds no magic. The village has four Nonconformist chapels, although none with large congregations or regular clergy. Near the bleak little Ebenezer Congregational Chapel on Nun Street we meet Mrs. Rosina Gray, a retired math teacher with a happy, mischievous expression. Her family -- Nonconformists and St. David's citizens from way back -- have been avoiding the cathedral for generations. Her dissenting 17th-century ancestor Nicholas Arnold, she tells us, refused to sign the book at his wedding in the cathedral, defiantly putting down his thumb print instead. 'My father never set foot in the cathedral in his whole life. If he'd known I sold postcards there once . . . ' She raises her eyebrows with meaning.
Mrs. Gray's father, Ivor Arnold, a farmer in the days when St. David's men either farmed or went to sea, must have been a man of granite determination. He survived the year 1908 farming, the only inhabitant of rugged Ramsey Island, a mile offshore, across the dangerous waters of Ramsey Sound. I'd seen it the day before when sitting in a rubber raft full of bird watchers. A young gray seal looked happy as it floated nearby on its back, asleep; so did any number of razorbills and kittiwakes, cozily settled on the island's grim cliff ledges. But it can't have been easy for Mr. Arnold, rowing to the mainland among jagged rocks, with a tethered cow swimming behind his boat.
Late on a hot afternoon, we take a long way around to the nearby estuary harbor, Porth Clais, where St. David was baptized by St. Elvis (St. Elvis?). Inland, the landscape of the peninsula is oddly fluid in shape and color, much of it invisible from the narrow lanes sunk between flowery hedge banks. The fields are flat and exposed, with Carn Llidi, a 600-foot rock outcrop, looming on the horizon like Mount Fuji. Trees stand out, too, sculptured into lopsided shapes by the wind. What you don't see from a distance are the sudden, steep little valleys, like the one that hides St. David's Cathedral. This countryside doesn't seem to have heard of superhighways, malls, motels, real-estate developments, or roadside fast-food restaurants. Not even the clusters of white camper vehicles in fields near some of the bays would stop a Druid from feeling right at home.
We arrive at the cathedral after a few dreadful Welsh beers up in the village at the Farmer's Arms, where a lot of young braggarts are showing off for their shy girl friends, and the ladies' room features a condom machine, to find we've missed evensong. It's 7:30, and the choir is spilling out of the south transept door into the soft, concentrated evening sunlight. I ask two choristers, Victoria Beaumont and Naomi Herrick, both 8 1/2, what is special about singing in St. David's. Naomi ponders this rather stupid question. 'Well, when you're in the choir you're not looking around, you're just singing to Jesus. I think that's what's special about it,' she says. Is the choir master frightening? 'He's my dad,' says Victoria. They skip off over the bridge to their houses in the close, looking like figures in a Sargent family portrait in their white blouses and black skirts and stockings.
Leaning on the wall beside the bridge, we find we're alone near the west end of the cathedral, except for Blackie, the cathedral cat, who's asleep in a dwindling patch of sun beside an ancient outbuilding. Rooks caw rustily, flying in and out of nests in the upper arches of the bishop's palace. The hour and the place seem quietly hallowed, without the intensity of the time when I first stared down at St. David's. What actually constitutes a holy place, we wonder. A site where some blessed quality has existed since time began or one sanctified by centuries of human prayer? I have a feeling sanctity may not be a place, just a never-to-be-repeated moment of illumination that might happen to anyone almost anywhere -- in the presence of a great cathedral, or out on a cliff in Dewisland, alone with the gods and the wind. WELSH SUSTENANCE
WARPOOL COURT HOTEL, St. David's, Pembrokeshire (telephone: 437-720-300), is a five-minute walk from the center of town, off Goat Street, near the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Built in the 1860's as the cathedral choir school, it was later a country house, and many of its rooms are adorned with tiles hand-painted by Ada Williams, who lived there at the end of the 19th century. There are 25 bedrooms, and a double room, with bath and breakfast, is about $135 to $185, depending on season; the hotel is closed in March. Specialties of the Warpool Court restaurant include smoked salmon, avocado and Stilton flan, noisettes of Welsh lamb, sirloin of Welsh beef and, for dessert, creme brulee, banoffi flan (a biscuit base filled with toffee, bananas and coffee cream) or a plate of fruit and Welsh cheeses. Dinner for two, with wine, is about $125.
OLD CROSS HOTEL, Cross Square, St. David's, Pembrokeshire (437-720-387), is an 18th-century house that was renovated and extended in the late 1950's. There are 17 bedrooms in the main building, and 3 bedrooms in an annex on the grounds. A double room, with bath and breakfast, is about $90 to $105, depending on season; the hotel is closed from November to March. Entrees offered by the hotel restaurant include roast leg of Welsh lamb with mint sauce roast, stuffed loin of pork, and grilled fillet of halibut with hollandaise sauce. Dinner for two, with wine, is about $65.
HARBOR HOUSE HOTEL, Lower Solva, Pembrokeshire (437-721-267), is about three miles from St. David's, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. One-half of the hotel building is some 200 years old, while the other half was built in the 1950's. It has four bedrooms, and a double room, with shower and breakfast, costs about $75. The hotel restaurant, the Fayre Clipper, is open to the public, and specialties include fresh fish, a whole chicken coated with Dijon mustard, fillet of salmon in a puff pastry with lemon and chives and fillet of beef stuffed with smoked oysters. Dinner for two, with wine, is about $65.
FARMER'S ARMS, 14-16 Goat Street, St. David's, Pembrokeshire (437-720-328), is the only pub in St. David's. A bitter is about $2.15 a pint, lager is about $2.30, stout costs $2.60 and real ale is about $2.30. A meal for two, of sausage and chips or lasagna, with a glass of ale, is about $15.
Saint Davids Cathedral | |
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St Davids Cathedral | |
Coordinates: 51°52′55″N5°16′06″W / 51.88194°N 5.26833°W | |
Location | St Davids, Pembrokeshire |
Country | Wales |
Denomination | Church in Wales |
Previous denomination | Roman Catholic Church (until mid-16th century) |
Churchmanship | High church |
Website | stdavidscathedral.org.uk |
History | |
Authorising papal bull | 1123 |
Founded | c. AD 589 |
Founder(s) | St David |
Consecrated | 1131 |
Relics held | St David |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Medieval masons John Nash (18th century) George Gilbert Scott (19th century) |
Style | Romanesque architecture, English Gothic architecture |
Groundbreaking | 1181 |
Completed | mid-13th century |
Specifications | |
Length | 90 metres (300ft) |
Nave width | 22.5 metres (74ft) |
Height | 35 metres (115ft) |
Administration | |
Diocese | Diocese of St Davids |
Clergy | |
Bishop(s) | Wyn Evans |
Dean | Jonathan Lean |
Canon Chancellor | Dr. Patrick Thomas |
Canon(s) | Dorrien Paul Davies |
Canon Treasurer | Geoffrey Gwyther |
Assistant priest(s) | Michael I. Plant |
Assistant | Adrian T. Furse (minor canon) |
Laity | |
Organist/Director of music | Oliver Waterer |
Organist(s) | Simon Pearce |
Chapter clerk | Arwel Davies |
Verger | James Elliot Harris |
St David's Cathedral (Welsh:Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi) is situated in St Davids in the county of Pembrokeshire, on the most westerly point of Wales.
Early history
The monastic community was founded by Saint David, Abbot of Menevia, who died in 589. Between 645 and 1097, the community was attacked many times by raiders, including the Vikings, however it was of such note as both a religious and intellectual centre that King Alfred summoned help from the monastic community at St Davids in rebuilding the intellectual life of the Kingdom of Wessex. Many of the bishops were murdered by raiders and marauders, including Bishop Moregenau in 999 and Bishop Abraham in 1080. The stone, which marked his grave, known as the 'Abraham Stone', is intricately carved with early Celtic symbols and now on permanent display within the Cathedral Exhibition at Porth-y-Tŵr.
In 1081, William the Conqueror visited St Davids to pray, and thus recognised it as a holy and respected place. In 1089, the shrine of David was vandalised and stripped of its precious metals. In 1090, the Welsh scholar Rhigyfarch wrote his Latin Life of David, highlighting David's sanctity, thus beginning the almost cult-like status he achieved.
In 1115, with the area under Norman control, King Henry I of England appointed Bishop Bernard as Bishop of St Davids. He began to improve life within the community, and commenced construction of a new cathedral. In 1123, Pope Calixtus II granted Bishop Bernard's request to bestow a papal privilege upon St Davids, making it a centre of pilgrimage for the Western world, the Pope decreeing that 'Two pilgrimages to St Davids is equal to one to Rome, and three pilgrimages to one to Jerusalem'.[1] The new cathedral was quickly constructed and Bishop Bernard consecrated it in 1131. Henry II of England's visit in 1171 saw the following of David increase and the need for a larger cathedral.
The present cathedral was begun in 1181 and completed not long after. Problems beset the new building and the community in its infancy, the collapse of the new tower in 1220 and earthquake damage in 1247/48.
Under Bishop Gower (1328–1347) the cathedral was modified further, with the rood screen and the Bishops Palace intended as permanent reminders of his episcopacy. (The palace is now a picturesque ruin.)
In 1365, Bishop Adam Houghton and John of Gaunt began to build St Mary's College and a chantry. He later added the cloister which connects it to the cathedral.[2]
The episcopacy of Edward Vaughan (1509–1522) saw the building of the Holy Trinity chapel, with its fan vaulting which some say inspired the roof of King’s College, Cambridge. This period also saw great developments for the nave, whose roof and Irish oak ceiling were constructed between 1530-40. Bishop Barlow, unlike his predecessor as bishop, wished to suppress the following of David, and stripped St David's shrine of its jewels and confiscated the relics of St David and St Justinian in order to counteract 'superstition' in 1538. In 1540, the body of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond and father of Henry VII, was brought to be entombed in front of the high altar from the dissolved Greyfriars' Priory in Carmarthen.
The dissolution of the monarchy and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell had great effect on many cathedrals and churches, particularly felt in St Davids. The cathedral was all but destroyed by Cromwell’s forces and the lead was stripped from the Bishop's Palace roof.
Present cathedral
The Welsh architect John Nash was commissioned to restore the west front in 1793 to repair the damage done two hundred years previously. Eclectic in style (with Gothic and Perpendicular characteristics - the latter attributed partly from his destruction of the windows of the chapel of St Mary's College in order to reuse that tracery for his west front) his work soon proved to be substandard (as had his previous work on the chapter house). Within a century the Nash west front had become unstable and the whole building was restored by George Gilbert Scott between 1862 and 1870. The lady chapel was restored by public subscription in 1901 and the eastern chapels were restored through a legacy of the Countess of Maidstone between 1901 and 1910.
The cathedral suffered the pains of disestablishment in 1923, as did the whole Church in Wales. The diocese was made smaller by the removal of the Archdeaconry of Brecon to form the new Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. However, this left a large area as a diocese to govern and St Davids began to deteriorate as the centre of the diocese, being nowhere near the centre – the bishop’s residence had been at Carmarthen since the 16th century, but administration and the focus moved from the cathedral to the diocese's now largest town.
The 1950s saw the appointment of the Reverend Carl Witton-Davies as dean; appointed in his thirties, his driving vision and energy was short-lived as he was offered what some was believed as a preferment as Archdeacon of Oxford, but did not leave that position for the rest of his service in the church. The cathedral began to have life again and the famous Welsh Youth Pilgrimages to St Davids (Cymry'r Groes) led many to a life of service in the church and provided the Church in Wales with inspired clergy for a decade following.
The 1960s saw the restoration of St Mary’s College as the cathedral hall, for the use of the cathedral parish and for use as an area for art exhibitions and poetry readings. It was dedicated by Archbishop Edwin Morris in 1966 and the inaugural event was a poetry reading by the renowned poet R. S. Thomas, who served as a vicar in the Bangor diocese.
During the 1980s a number of official events in cathedral life took place: in 1981, Charles, Prince of Wales visited to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral; and on Maundy Thursday 1982, Queen Elizabeth II distributed the Royal Maundy at the cathedral. This was the first occasion that the ceremony had taken place outside England. In 1989-90, the 1400th anniversary of the death of St David was presided over by the Archbishop of Wales, George Noakes, who was also diocesan Bishop of St Davids.
The decades leading to and immediately following the year 2000, have been the most notable in the cathedral's history since its construction. Firstly, the British Government decided to reinstate the title of 'city' to St Davids and this was formally conferred by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 June 1995. The task that lay before the dean, the Very Reverend Wyn Evans, on his appointment in 1994 was huge: a new organ was badly needed and the west front needed extensive restoration. It was also thought time that the cathedral invested in its future by creating a visitor centre within the bell tower, enlarging the peal of bells from eight to ten and by the 'reconstruction', or completion, of the cathedral cloisters to house the cathedral choir, vestries, an education suite, rooms for parish use and a refectory as a reminder of the monastic beginnings. The first project was the restoration of the west front, with the original quarry that was used for stone at Caerbwdi Bay being reopened. This phase was completed in 1998, in time for the organ to be dismantled and rebuilt by the organ builders Harrison and Harrison of Durham. The organ was completed in the middle months of 2000 and dedicated on 15 October that year.
The ring of bells was cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry of London and presented as a gift by the American Friends of St Davids Cathedral. The substantial task of rebuilding the cloisters as an education centre and refectory began in 2003 and was completed in May 2007. The translation of Wyn Evans from dean to bishop led to the appointment of Jonathan Lean as dean in 2009.
The bells are not hung in the central tower of the cathedral but in the old gatehouse, Porth y Twr. There are 10 bells with the heaviest weighing 24cwt-3qr-25lbs in D, the back eight bells were cast in 1928 by Mears & Stainbank, London and two trebles added in 2000 cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London.Details of the bells:
Bell | Weight | Note | Diameter | Cast year | Foundry |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5-1-3 | F# | ? | 2000 | Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd |
2 | 5-1-23 | E | ? | 2000 | Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd |
3 | 5-2-22 | D | 30.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
4 | 5-3-23 | C# | 31.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
5 | 7-0-13 | B | 33.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
6 | 8-2-3 | A | 35.75' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
7 | 10-3-13 | G | 39.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
8 | 11-2-23 | F# | 41.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
9 | 17-1-2 | E | 46.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
10 | 24-3-25 | D | 52.00' | 1928 | Mears & Stainbank |
The restored Shrine of St David was unveiled and re-dedicated by the Right ReverendWyn Evans, Bishop of St Davids, at a Choral Eucharist on St Davids Day 2012.[3]
Cathedral life
There are at least three services said or sung per day, each week, with sung services on five out of seven days.
The cathedral choir at St Davids was the first cathedral choir in the United Kingdom to use girls and men as the main choir, rather than boys and men.[4] Many inaccurately attribute this to Salisbury Cathedral, however they introduced boys and girls on an equal basis, whereas St Davids used girls as their 'main' cathedral choristers. There is also a boys' choir whose weekly Evensong is a major event within the cathedral week. They sing with the vicars choral regularly.
The St David's Cathedral Festival runs through the Whitsun school holiday each year and showcases some of the world's best performers. The week sees performers, both professional and young, play in front of thousands. The cathedral choir serve as a highlight each year, being a very popular concert, as well as the Festival Chorus and Orchestra who perform a major work on the final night of the festival.
List of deans
Before 1840 the senior residentiary cleric was the precentor and not a dean due to a complication during the dissolution of the monasteries. Since 1840 the title 'Dean' has been appended to that of Precentor, hence the deans of St Davids are formally the 'Dean and Precentor' and their seat being on what is normally regarded in most places the cantoris side, with a stall 'in quire' reserved for the bishop.
- 1839–1878 Llewelyn Lewellin (assumed title of Dean in 1840)
- 1878–1895 James Allen
- 1895–1897 Owen Phillips
- 1897–1903 David Howell
- 1904–1918 James Allan Smith
- 1919–1930 William Williams
- 1931–1940 David Watcyn Morgan
- 1940–1949 Albert Parry
- 1950–1957 Carlyle Witton-Davies (afterwards Archdeacon of Oxford, 1957)
- 1957–1972 Edward Jenkins
- 1972–1984 Lawrence Bowen
- 1984–1990 Gordon MacWilliam
- 1990–1994 Bertie Lewis
- 1994–2008 Wyn Evans (afterwards Bishop of St Davids)
- 2009–present Jonathan Lean
Local legends
Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) in the 13th-century relates the strange story of a marble footbridge leading from the church over the Alun rivulet in St Davids. The marble stone was called 'Llechllafar' ('the talking stone') because it once spoke when a corpse was carried over it to the cemetery for interment. The effort of speech had caused it to break, despite its size of ten foot in length, six in breadth and one in thickness. This bridge was worn smooth due to its age and the thousands of people who had walked over it, however the superstition was so great that corpses were no longer carried over it.[5] This ancient bridge was replaced in the 16th-century and its present whereabouts is not known.[6][7]
Another legend is that Merlin had prophesied the death on Llechllafar of an EnglishKing, conqueror of Ireland, who had been injured by a man with a red hand. King Henry II on a pilgrimage to Saint Davids, having come over from Ireland, heard of the prophecy and crossed Llechllafar without ill effect. He boasted that Merlin was a liar, to which a bystander replied that the King would not conquer Ireland and was therefore not the king of the prophecy.[5] This turned out to be true, for Henry never did conquer the whole of Ireland.[6][7]
Burials
Organ
A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[8]
List of organists
- 1509 John Norman
- 1563 Thomas Elliot
- c.1570–c.1586 Thomas Tomkins (father of the composer Thomas Tomkins)[9][10]
- 1713 R. Mordant
- 1714 Henry Mordant
- 1719 Richard Tomkins
- 1719 Williarn Bishop
- 1720 Henry Williams
- 1725 Matthew Maddox
- 1734 Matthew Philpott
- 1793 Arthur Richardson
- 1827 John Barrett
- 1851 William Peregrine Propert
- 1883 Frederick Garton
- 1894 D. John Codner
- 1896 Herbert C. Morris
- 1922 Joseph Soar
- 1953 Peter Boorman
- 1977 Nicholas Jackson
- 1984 Malcolm Watts
- 1990 Kerry Beaumont
- 1995 Geraint Bowen
- 2001 Timothy Noon
- 2007 Alexander Mason
- 2011 Daniel Cook
- 2013 Oliver Waterer
References
- ↑ 'A Brief History'. St Davids Cathedral.
- ↑ Glanmor Williams, ‘Houghton, Adam (died 1389)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
- ↑ 'News Archive 2012'. St Davids Cathedral.
- ↑ 'The Choir'. St Davids Cathedral. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
- Hoare, Sir Richard Colt (1806). The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales MCLXXXVIII by Giraldus de Barri. Pub. William Miller, London. P. 6 - 8.
- Phillips, Rev James (1909). The History of Pembrokeshire. Pub. Elliot Stock, London. P. 205 - 206.
- Jones, William Basil; Freeman, Edward Augustus (1856). 'The History and Antiquities of Saint Davids'. London: J. H. & J. Parker: 222.
- ↑ 'Pembrokeshire (Dyfed), St Davids Cathedral of St David & St Andrew'. National Pipe Organ Register. The British Institute of Organ Studies. 2005. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
- ↑ 'St Andrew and St David'. English Cathedrals Music. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- ↑
- 'Thomas Tomkins'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27515.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
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