Editing Laugharne (section)

==History==
[[File:Coygan_rock.jpg|thumb|left|Excavations at [[Coygan Cave]]<ref>Carmarthen museum records indicate the photograph was taken during the excavation of the archaeological site at Laugharne by Herbert Eccles (whose Broadway estate contained the quarry) and S. Grant Dalton in either 1913 or 1917. {{cite web |title=Coygan Cave, Carmarthenshire |url=https://www.ahobproject.org/database/showSite.php?View=GEN&LocNum=54/%5d |website=AHOB |access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref>]]
[[File:Laugharnecastle.jpg|thumb|left|[[Laugharne Castle]], originally known as Abercorran Castle<ref name="RCAHMW: Abercorran Castle">{{cite web|title=RCAHMW: Abercorran Castle|url=https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/placenames/recordedname/9d55d4a8-90b4-4c2f-b599-60b0454e94c3|access-date=18 June 2020}}</ref>]]
[[File:Dylan Thomas Bust, Laugharne.jpg|thumb|left|Dylan Thomas sculpture, The Strand; made by sculptor Simon Hedger<ref>{{cite web |title=Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Simon Hedger |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/dylan-thomas-19141953-291175 |publisher=Art UK|access-date=18 June 2023}}</ref>]] 
Throughout much of the [[Prehistoric Britain|Prehistoric]] period, human activity in the Laugharne area was centred on Coygan Bluff,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historic Landscape Characterisation:Taf & Tywi Estuary|url=https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/HLC/CarmarthenBayMap.htm|access-date=22 June 2021|publisher=Dyfed Archaeological Trust}}</ref> a steep-sided limestone [[peninsula]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Murphy |first1=K. |title=Site of Coygan Cave, near Laugharne |url=https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-coygan-cave-near-laugharne |website=History Points}}</ref> overlooking the now submerged coastal plain to the south. A natural cave<ref>
{{Coflein|num=103399|desc=Coygan Cave|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> on the southeast face of the promontory was excavated five times between 1865 and 1965<ref>{{Cite web|title= 199 Coygan Cave, Laugharne|date=1995|url=https://www.ahobproject.org/database/showSite.php?View=GEN&LocNum=54/|access-date=22 June 2021|publisher=The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) Database}}</ref> yielding significant evidence that its chambers acted as a temporary shelter for groups of hunter-gatherers moving through the landscape over 50,000 years ago<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/lostlandscapes/earliesthumans.html|title=Earliest Humans in Paleolithic Wales|first1=Michael|last1=Ings|first2=Fran|last2=Murphy|date=2011|website=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website}}</ref> and later material in the form of flint tools indicating an extended series of occupations from the [[Prehistoric Wales|Mesolithic and Neolithic]] periods.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=G.Wainwright|date=1967|title=An Early Neolithic Settlement on Coygan Rock,Carmarthenshire|journal=Antiquity |volume=41 |issue=161 |page=66 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/an-early-neolithic-settlement-on-coygan-rock-carmarthenshire/D49E64EC166E5996A1518D92C50175CE|access-date=15 January 2021|publisher=Cambridge University (Abstracts)|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00104855 |s2cid=162697347 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> These discoveries suggest that the Township<ref>{{Cite web|title=Laugharne Township Boundary Map|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10382233/boundary|access-date=23 June 2021|publisher=Vision of Britain.org}}</ref> is probably the oldest still-inhabited settlement in Wales. Contemporary artefacts from the [[Mousterian]] period have also been found at nearby [[Paviland]] and [[Long Hole Cave|Long Hole]] caves along with older hominin remains at [[Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site|Bontnewydd]] but, unlike at Laugharne, the communities associated with them are long vanished.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/lostlandscapes/WCPStechnical.pdf|title=West Coast Paleolandscapes Survey (PDF)|last1=Vitch|first1=Simon|last2=Gaffney|first2=Vince|date=2011|publisher=University of Birmingham: Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity|website=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website}}</ref>

In the 4th century BC, a [[Hillforts in Britain|promontory fort]] was built at the summit of the hill.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coygan Camp – Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Dyfed – Dyfed Archaeological Trust |url=https://www.archwilio.org.uk/arch/query/page.php?watprn=DAT7451&dbname=dat&tbname=core&sessid=CHI2dm3f6q6&queryid=Q197210001612281923|access-date=22 June 2021|publisher=Historic Environment Record}}</ref> During the [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]], Coygan camp is recorded as the site of an open settlement with funerary and ritual activity shown by a short-cist contracted inhumation. Further finds at a nearby round barrow on Laugharne Burrows<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cantrill |first1=T.C.|title=The Shell Mounds on Laugharne Burrows |journal=Archaeologia Cambrensis |date=1909 |volume= 9 |issue=6th Series |pages=433–472 |hdl=10107/4722433|url=http://hdl.handle.net/10107/4722433|access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref> together with [[Bell Beaker culture|Beaker]] burials at Plashett<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hill Morris |first1=William |last2=Ward |first2=Anthony H. |title=Antiquarian Exploration of Presumed Bronze Age Sepulchral Remains on Allt Cunedda, South East Dyfed. New information on discoveries |journal=Carmarthen Antiquary |date=1984 |volume=20 |url=http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Articles/AlltCunedda/AlltCunedda.htm |access-date=29 June 2021 |publisher=Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society}}</ref> and Orchard Park<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=J.F.|title=Orchard Park Beaker Burial |journal=Carmarthen Antiquary |date=1951 |volume=2 |page=5579}}</ref> confirm a more permanent community. Excavation in the 1960s of the defended enclosure on Coygan revealed two huts contemporary with the defensive bank and ditch and a significant quantity of pottery recovered dating to the late 3rd century AD indicating that the site was occupied deep into the Romano-British period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aldouse-Green |first1=S. |last2=Scott |first2=K. |last3=Schwarcz |first3=H. |last4=Grun |first4=R. |last5=Housley |first5=R. |last6=Rae |first6=A. |last7=Bevins |first7=R. |last8=Redknap |first8=M. |title=Coygan Cave, Laugharne, South Wales, a Mousterian site and hyanae den: a report on the University of Cambridge excavation. |date=1995 |publisher=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society |pages=37–39}}</ref> Another significant [[British Iron Age|Iron Age]] settlement has also been identified at Glan-y-Mor Fort<ref>{{Coflein|num=304152|desc=Glan-y-mor Fort, Laugharne|access-date=29 September 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> in the north of the township.

The Laugharne hoard of over 2000 coins<ref>{{cite web |last1=Oxford Roman Economy Project |title=Laugharne Hoard Discovered 2006 |url=https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/165 |website=Coin Hoards of The Roman Empire |publisher=Oxford University & Ashmolean Museum |access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref> and Roman bath remains found at [[Island House, Laugharne|Island House]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curtis |first1=Mary |title=Antiquities of Laugharne, Pendine et al. |date=1880 |publisher=R. Clay |location=London |pages=92 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/antiquitiesoflau00curt/page/92/mode/2up?q=island+house |access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref> together with the   substantial Romano-British group of imported 6th-century finewares, coinage and glass from Coygan Camp, described as "one of the richest from a native settlement in south-west Wales",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=J. |title=Aspects of Native Settlement in Roman Wales and the Marches |date=1980 |publisher=University of Wales College Cardiff |pages=487}}</ref> are all part of a concentration of traditional 'Roman' finds in the area. As evidence of activity from the period is generally scarce, these discoveries confirm the site as one of  importance<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=E. |title=Prehistoric Undefended Settlements Project,Southwest Wales: A Review of Report 2004/53 |journal=Cambria Archaeology |date=1988}}</ref> and suggest that it continued to be a high status settlement well beyond the Roman occupation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Seaman |first1=A. |title=Defended Settlement in Early Medieval Wales: Problems of Presence, Absence and Interpretation |date=2016 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-78570-236-5 |pages=37–52 |url=https://archive.org/details/defended-settlement-in-early-medieval-wa |access-date=27 June 2021}}</ref> A 6th-century inscribed stone lies within Llansadwrnen church to the north, considered to be an outlying burial site of the more important secular settlement on Coygan. Laugharne Church,<ref name=Coflein102141>{{Coflein|num=102141|desc=St Martin's Church, Laugharne|access-date=29 September 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> which contains a 9th-century Celtic slab stone<ref>{{cite web |title=Dark Age Stone Cross, St Martin's Church, Laugharne |url=https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=30023|website=Megalithic Portal |access-date=26 June 2021}}</ref> and where a [[cist|long cist grave]] cemetery has also been recorded, is thought to be a more likely early ecclesiastical site in the immediate area.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Poucher |first1=Philip |title=Corran Resort and Spa, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire Environmental Statement Chapter 2 Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment |date=15 August 2015|url=https://coflein.gov.uk/media/51/11/awp_179_04.pdf |website=Archaeology Wales |page=13|access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref>

In the [[Wales in the Early Middle Ages|Early Middle Ages]] Laugharne was the main settlement in the area and home to the Lords of Laugharne. It was a [[commote]] of [[Cantref Gwarthaf (Dyfed)|Gwarthaf]], the largest of the seven ''[[cantref]]i'' of the [[Kingdom of Dyfed]] in southwest Wales, later to be ruled by the [[Deheubarth|Princes of Deheuberth]]. In 1093, Deheubarth was seized by the Normans following [[Rhys ap Tewdwr]]'s death.<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Wales, Descriptive of the Government, Wars, Manners, Religion, Laws, Druids, Bards, Pedigrees and Language of the Ancient Britons and Modern Welsh, and of the Remaining Antiquities of the Principality |first=John |last=Jones |date=1824 |pages=63–64 |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofwalesde00joneuoft#page/n8/mode/2up |publisher=J. Williams |location=London |ol=OL7036828M |access-date=12 February 2019}}</ref> In the early 12th century, grants of lands were made to [[Flemish people|Fleming]]s by [[Henry I of England|King Henry I]] when their country was flooded.<ref name="flem">{{cite book|title=Laugharne: Local History and Folklore |first=R. H. |last=Tyler |year=1985 |orig-year=1925 |publisher=[[Gomer Press]] |location=Llandysul |display-authors=etal |isbn=9780863831546}} Compiled by Head, Senior Assistant and senior pupils of Laugharne School</ref> In 1116, when [[Gruffydd ap Rhys]] (the son and heir of Rhys ap Tewdwr) returned from self-imposed exile, the king arranged for the land to be fortified against him; according to the ''[[Brut y Tywysogyon]]'', Robert Courtemain constructed a [[Laugharne Castle|castle at Laugharne]] in that year<ref name="coexistence">{{cite book |title=Conquest, Coexistence, and Change: Wales 1063–1415 |first=R. R.|last=Davies |author-link=Rees Davies |year=1987 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=101 |isbn=0198217323 }}</ref> (this is the earliest reference to any castle at or near Laugharne<ref name="avent">{{cite book |chapter=Laugharne Castle |first=Richard |last=Avent |title=Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion |editor1-first=Thomas |editor1-last=Lloyd |editor2-first=Julian |editor2-last=Orbach |editor3-first=Robert |editor3-last=Scourfield |year=2006 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |series=The Buildings of Wales |isbn=9780300101799 |pages=219–27 (219–220) }}</ref>). Courtemain may be the ''Robertus cum tortis manibus'' ({{langx|en|Robert with twisted hands}})<ref name="Marches">{{cite journal |title=Carmarthen in Early Norman Times |first=John Edward |last=Lloyd |author-link=John Edward Lloyd |journal=Archaeologia Cambrensis |year=1907 |series=6th ser. |volume=7 |page=290 |url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologiacam61assogoog/page/n330/mode/2up}}</ref> mentioned in the [[Book of Llandaff]], as one of a number of specifically named Norman magnates{{refn|group=notes|The other named magnates are [[Walter de Clare|Walter fitz Richard]], [[Brian Fitz Count]], William Fitz-Baldwin (son of [[Baldwin FitzGilbert]]), Robert de Chandos (who held [[Caerleon]]), Geoffrey de Broi, [[Pain fitzJohn]], [[Bernard de Neufmarche]], Gumbald of Ludlow, Roger de Berkeley (Lord of [[Dursley]], and possible son of [[Roger I of Tosny]]), William the sheriff of Cardiff, William Fitz-Roger de Remu, and Robert Fitz Roger.}} within the vicinity of the [[Llandaff|Llandaff diocese]], who received a letter from [[Pope Callixtus II]] complaining about deprivations they had inflicted on diocesan church property;<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Jones |first1=Bryn |title=Welsh Contacts With The Papacy Before The Edwardian Conquest, C. 1283 |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/18284 |website=St Andrews Research Repository|access-date=30 June 2021 |date=2019|doi=10.17630/10023-18284 |hdl=10023/18284 |type=Thesis }}</ref> in the letter, the Pope warns he would confirm [[Urban (bishop of Llandaff)|Bishop Urban]]'s proclamations against them, if they do not rectify matters. The ''Brut'' states that Courtemain appointed a man named Bleddyn ap Cedifor as castellan;<ref name="coexistence" /> Bleddyn was the son of Cedifor ap Gollwyn, descendant and heir of the earlier kings of Dyfed (as opposed to those of Deheubarth).<ref name="coexistence" /><ref>{{cite book |first=R. R. |last=Davies |author-link=Rees Davies |title=The Age of Conquest: Wales, 1063–1415 |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198208782 |page=70 }}</ref> The castle was originally known as Abercorran Castle.<ref name="RCAHMW: Abercorran Castle"/> When Henry I died, [[The Anarchy|Anarchy occurred]], and Gruffydd, and his sons, [[Rhys ap Gruffydd|Lord Rhys]] in particular, gradually reconquered large parts of the former Deheubarth.

In 1154, the Anarchy was resolved when [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] became king; two years later, Lord Rhys agreed peace terms with Henry II and prudently<ref name="kingmaker">{{cite book |title=Kingmakers: How Power in England Was Won and Lost on the Welsh Frontier |first=Timothy |last=Venning |year=2017 |location=Stroud |publisher=Amberley |isbn=9781445659404 }}</ref> accepted that he would only rule [[Cantref Mawr]],<ref name="kingmaker" /> constructing [[Dinefwr Castle]] there. Henry II de-mobilised Flemish soldiers who had aided him during the Anarchy, settling them with the other Flemings.<ref name="flem" />
From time to time, however, King Henry had occasion to go to Ireland, or Normandy, which Lord Rhys took as an opportunity to try and expand his own holdings. Returning from Ireland after one such occasion, in 1172, King Henry made peace with Lord Rhys, making him the justiciar of "South Wales" (ie. Deheubarth). By 1247, Laugharne was held by Guy de Bryan; this is the earliest reference to his family possessing the castle,<ref name="avent"/> and his father (also named Guy de Bryan) had only moved the family to Wales in 1219 (from Devon).<ref name="avent"/> Guy de Bryan's descendants continued to hold the castle; his [[Guy de Bryan, 1st Baron Bryan|namesake great-grandson]] was Lord High Admiral of England. The latter's daughter Elizabeth inherited the castle and married an Owen of St Bride's who subsequently took his name – Owen Laugharne – from the castle<ref name="gents">{{cite journal |title=Notices of the castle and ownership of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire |journal=[[Gentleman's Magazine]] |year=1839 |volume=12 |page=602 }}</ref> despite [[Gerald of Wales]] calling the castle ''Talachar'', and other variations on Laugharne/Talacharn appearing in ancient charters; one anonymous pre-20th-century writer erroneously claimed that Owen Laugharne gave his name to the castle rather than the other way around.<ref name="gents"/> Possession subsequently defaulted to the Crown, and in 1575, [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]] granted it to [[Sir John Perrot]].<ref name="avent"/> In 1644 the castle was garrisoned for the king and taken for Parliament by Major-General [[Rowland Laugharne]], who subsequently reverted to the king's side.<ref name="Sieges of Laugharne Castle">[http://battlefields.rcahmw.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Laugharne-sieges-Gildas-2013.pdf Sieges of Laugharne Castle] by S Lloyd (2013)Report for [[CADW]] & [[Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales|RCAMW]]</ref> The population in 1841 was 1,389.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol.III, London, (1847), Charles Knight, p. 1,012.</ref>

===Laugharne Corporation===

Laugharne [[Municipal corporation|Corporation]] is an almost unique institution and, together with the [[City of London Corporation]], the last surviving [[mediæval]] corporation in the United Kingdom. The Corporation was established in 1291 by Sir Guy de Brian (''{{lang|frm|Gui de Brienne}}''), a [[Marcher Lord]].<ref name=jisc>{{cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb211-laugharne|title=Laugharne Corporation Records – Archives Hub|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk|access-date=10 February 2019}}</ref> Laugharne Corporation holds extensive historical records.<ref>[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb211-laugharne Carmarthenshire Archives Service website]</ref>
The Corporation is presided over by the [[portreeve]], wearing his traditional chain of gold [[cockle (bivalve)|cockle]] shells (one added by each portreeve, with his name and date of tenure on the reverse), the aldermen, and the body of [[Burgess (title)|burgess]]es. The title of portreeve is conferred annually, with the portreeve being sworn in on the first Monday after Michaelmas at the Big Court. The Corporation holds a [[court leet]] half-yearly formerly dealing with criminal cases, and a [[court baron]] every fortnight, dealing with civil suits within the lordship, especially in matters related to land, where administration of the common fields was dealt with.<ref name=jisc/> The Laugharne [[open-field system]] is one of only two surviving and still in use today in Britain.

'In Elizabeth's reign, the lordship passed to [[John Perrot|Sir John Perrott]] of Haroldston, a fact for which the inhabitants of Laugharne have had cause to regret. As at [[Carew Castle|Carew]] Perrot modernised the castle, but he was the most unscrupulous "land-grabber" of his age, and in 1574 he induced the burgesses to part with three hundred acres of land in return for an annuity of £9 6s. 8d. The records say that "diverse burgesses of the said towne did not assent to same", and that it was "to the great decaying of many". It would be interesting to know by what methods of bribery or intimidation Sir John was able to accomplish his nefarious purposes.'<ref>[https://journals.library.wales/view/4718179/4740893/187#?xywh=-1377%2C-68%2C5688%2C4378  Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol. 100, (1948–49)] Prof. David Williams: Introduction to Laugharne.</ref>

[[File:Geograph-5130338-by-welshbabe.jpg|thumb|Plan of [[open-field system]] in common land on The Hugdon, a hill to the west of Laugharne<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Baker|editor1-first=Alan R. H.|editor2-last=Butlin|editor2-first=Robin A.|title=Studies of Field Systems in the British Isles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cDM7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA512|year=1973|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20121-6|pages=512–514}}</ref>]]
The most senior 76 burgesses get a strang of land on Hugden for life, to be used in a form of mediæval strip-farming.

The chief toast at the Portreeve's feast is "to the immortal memory of Sir Guido de Brian"; then the Recorder must sing the following song:
{{quote|<poem>When Sir Guy de Brien lived in Laugharne,
A jolly old man was he.
Some pasture land he owned, which he
Divided into three.
Says he "There's Hugdon and the Moor
They will the Commons please;
And all the gentlemen shall have
Their share down on the Lees."<ref>{{cite news|last=Welshman|first=The|date=4 November 1910|title=Llwynog's Notes|url=https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4360291/4360300/40/hugdon|access-date= 12 July 2020}}</ref></poem>}}