Heritage Hiker’s Guide to St Brides Major

Where is St Brides Major?

St Brides Major – Sant-y-Brid is a village, near to Southerndown along the Glamorgan Heritage Coast. The area is known for its limestone quarrying. Over time these quarries have produced prehistoric fossilised remains from thousands of years ago. There are various findspots of prehistoric material and within the local landscape of St Bride’s Major there is is an Iron Age Hillfort – Fleming’s Down. There is the mystery of lost Iron Age treasure from nearby Old Castle Down. The local church of St Bridget’s is Medieval in date. There is a small shop near the church and The Fox is located nearby.

Fleming’s Down Hillfort  

Fleming’s Down is an inland fort on a natural promontory overlooking the Ewenny valley, at its confluence with the River Ogmore. It has a substantial defensive earthwork, and it may be that some of the scarp slopes have been steepened for better defence.

Lost Treasure? Old Castle Down

In 1818 workmen came across three burials with a substantial collection of items from the Iron Age: knives, spear heads, ornate enamelled helmets, and thick copper skull-caps. The items were recorded at the time, but lost afterwards, to this day the exact location of this significant collection remains unknown. In 2001 the site was tentatively identified as Old Castle Down. Writing in 1925, Mortimer Wheeler described the finds as “the richest and most remarkable of their kind known to have been discovered in Britain”.

St Bridget’s Church

The 12th-century Church of St Bridget, in St Brides Major is now in the combined Parish of Ewenny and St Brides Major. The church of St Bridget was one of the endowments conferred on Ewenny priory at its foundation in 1141.

The earliest surviving feature is the Norman chancel arch. Most of the windows in the north and south walls of the chancel are 14th century. The tower is dates around the 15th/early 16th century. Heavy restoration to the nave and porch took place in the first half of the 1850s. The church is noted for its monumental sculpture. There are two medieval fonts, all other internal fittings are described as Victorian or later.

The churchyard is polygonal and the churchyard cross survives to the N of the church. The cross base has 6 steps surmounted by a socket-stone with a cross shaft that tapers slightly upwards.

Castle Upon Alun.

Old maps suggest that east of the modern village a castle once stood but no traces remain today. Records suggest it had a short-lived life that lasted only until the 14^th century. There is a house called Castle-upon-Alun that incorporates older buildings and medieval stonework near the marked site of the castle. Was the original building once linked to the castle?

Walks

Vale Trail 10   Offering an 8, 5 and 3 mile walk starting and finishing in St Brides.

Or the Bridgend Circular Walk 3 (Vale Section)

For articles relating to areas near St Brides Major see Southerndown, Ewenny and Ogmore-by-Sea