St Dogmaels () is a village, parish
Toponymy
The English and Welsh names seem to bear no similarity, but it has been suggested that possibly both names refer to the same saint or founder
Dogmael (Dogfael), with ‘mael’ (prince) and ‘tud’ (land or people of) being added to Dog/doch as in
Dog mael and
Tud doch.
It is the current standard usage not to have a full-stop after the 'St' or an apostrophe in 'Dogmaels'.
History
St Dogmaels Abbey is 12th-century Tironesian and was one of the richer monastic institutions in Wales. Adjacent to the abbey
ruins is the parish church (Church in Wales) of St Thomas, which appears successively to have occupied at least three sites close to or within the abbey buildings. The present building is a respectable minor Victorian edifice and contains the Ogam Sagranus stone.
St Dogmaels was once a marcher borough. George Owen of Henllys, in 1603, described it as one of five Pembrokeshire boroughs overseen by a portreeve.[Owen, George, The Description of Penbrokshire by George Owen of Henllys Lord of Kemes, Henry Owen (Ed), London, 1892] The parish appeared (as Sct. Dogmels) on a 1578 parish map of Pembrokeshire.
In the 1830s, the population of the parish was 2,109,
There are more than 30
In 2006, the village won the Wales Calor Village of the Year competition after beating Trefriw in the final.[ Calor Village of the Year ]
Pembrokeshire Coast Path
The northern end of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path is often regarded as being at
Poppit Sands, near St. Dogmaels, where the official plaque was originally sited
but the path now continues to St. Dogmaels,
where a new marker was unveiled in July 2009.
Here the path links with the Ceredigion Coast Path, which continues northwards as part of the Wales Coast Path.
Governance
An electoral ward of the same name exists, stretching to include the community of
Nevern. The population taken at the 2011 census was 2,218.
Shakespeare in St Dogmaels Abbey
A
Shakespeare play is performed annually in the abbey during the summer since the first play was performed in 1987. The actors are both local and from all parts of Great Britain.
Notable people
-
Joseph Harris (1773–1825), was born at Llan-ty-ddewi, St. Dogmells. He was a Welsh Baptist minister, author, journal editor and a Welsh language poet. He took the Biblical name of Gomer as his bardic name.
-
Rhodri Thomas (born 1942), born in St Dogmaels, a Welsh former first-class cricketer.
Twinning
St Dogmaels is
town twinning with the village of Trédarzec in Côtes-d'Armor,
Brittany.
See also
-
Albro Castle, a former workhouse
-
Calor Village of the Year
-
St Dogmaels F.C.
External links
