Diocese of Monmouth

A Short Guide to

ST PETER’S CHURCH, GOETRE,

MONMOUTHSHIRE

By Friends of Torfaen Museum Trust

1996

The Church of St. Peter (SO 326-059) is situated in the village of Goetre (sign

posted Goytre) on the right of the A4042 road from Pontypool to

Abergavenny. Goetre was in that part of the Lordship of Abergavenny called

Pellenig [Penperlleni] - ‘the distant part’.

The register dates from 1695, Rectors are listed from 1539. There are 290

seats. The oldest register contains names throughout in Welsh, many people

having a string of Christian names, (including the patronymic system) as was

used before the introduction of surnames.

Goetre should be more correctly called Goedtref, Goed, from Coed, (Wood),

Tref (Town) giving Woodtown. The description is derived from the forest

with which it was surrounded and it “abounded with recesses and pleasant

glades dotted with white cottages”. The few byroads in the area were

straight, deep, narrow and stony and exhibited occasional traces of paved

causeways, indicating more frequent use in earlier times.

In the pre-Manorial period, at New Grange [Usk] customary tenants held

lands in the hamlets of the Manor, including Penperlleni [Goetre], here the

villeins paid no rent but did one day’s work per week, together with

ploughing, reaping and weeding services. The nature of the soil was poor and

hungry, hence the old rhyme, “Y Goetre dlawd, Heb na bara na blawd” (Poor

Goetre without bread or meal).

The earlier building that was St. Peter’s was simple in form, without a tower,

and in Early Gothic style (dismantled c1844). Little of this edifice remains,

except the S. porch where there are two sandstone heads. St. Peter’s Church

was rebuilt in 1845/6. Today the church is in Early English style.

The Norman font, has cable moulding and semicircles. Nearby is an ancient

oak chest. Two alms dishes are made of yew, 1000 years old. The mediaeval

vestry was moved to the S. side of the nave, but its mediaeval mouldings and

dressings, remain on the W. wall. The churchyard contains yew trees, one of

which is 40 feet in circumference.

The mediaeval roof of the chancel survives. In 1903 the E. window was filled

with stained glass, as a memorial to Thomas Evans, Rector at the time of the

rebuilding of the church. A thought-provoking tablet to D F Pritchard is

inscribed, “He lit fires in many cold rooms”.

In May 1872 a dispute arose between the Rector, Thomas Evans, and a poor

widow, Mrs Waite, over a well of water. She had started sending her children

to a new school, as opposed to the Rector’s own teaching establishment.

Taking umbrage, he stopped her from drawing her pitcher of water, the well

was on his land (newly acquired). Local support rallied around her, and the

Rector instructed his workmen to fill the well with stones, and when the

cottagers dragged them off, he also added the contents of his water closet

and the privies of his tenants. Three months into feuding, the Rectors wife

spent a day on top of the heap of stones, plying hired navvies with drink, to

get them to build up a cairn of 1000 tons of stones, glass etc., over a period

of 2-3 weeks.

Retaliation came at 5.00 a.m. one morning, when Mrs Waite, aided by 35

farmers, and (watched .by four policemen) removed a stone and the well was

reopened 5 hours later.

After 1860, services in Welsh were gradually discontinued. On the death of

the Rector, Thomas Evans, the question of language in the appointment of

his successor arose, and in 1887, an inquiry was held by the Bishop (who

himself acted as interpreter) for the Welsh-speaking witnesses. 48 people

from the Parish were heard, although most of the Welsh speakers attended

the local Welsh chapels.

Traditionally, the last wolf in Gwent was killled under the “Wolf-tree” in the

“Slwch” [Llwch - the wood across the road from Goetre Hall]. It is told that in

the C15 Thomas Herbert of Goetre Hall, illegitimate son of William Herbert,

1st Earl of Pembroke (who lived at Raglan Castle) organised a great

Wolf-hunt to rid the country of an exceptionally mischievous wolf Herbert

rushed in with his huntsman‘s knife, and was grabbed by the thigh. He

survived but was ever known as Gloff (the lame). John Herbert, the last of the

line, left an only daughter, married c1670 to Richard Jenkins, whose

successors are buried in the sanctuary of St. Peter’s.