Our study day in St Davids was great fun. We were two very different groups, the Church Monuments Society and the Welsh Stone Forum, under the genial guidance of the Cathedral librarian (the day was also part of the Libraries Week programme). We learned a lot from each other.

Several fresh eyes made more discoveries in that Turner painting of Archdeacon Hiot’s tomb (more on that at https://churchmonumentssociety.org/2024/10/08/turner-and-hiot-at-st-davids). A more careful look at the actual stonework of Edmund Tudor’s tomb revealed that the Victorian replacement brass effigy was not such a good fit to the original indent: the brass is surrounded by a stone composition filler which was presumably to make good the gaps between the original and the replacement.

The same stone composition was also used around the edges  of the one surviving brass indent in the choir. Careful examination suggested the stone of that one was the local Caerfai or Caerbwdi, suggesting that the brass was brought to St Davids and fitted into its stone on site.

There were more Caerbwdi and Caerfai monuments, but the distance some of the stone had been transported – as well as the Purbeck of Edmund’s tomb chest, the Painswick of the two knightly effigies (which could just possibly be retrospectives for the Lord Rhys and his younger son Rhys Gryg), the Dundry of John Hiot and the Beer and Bath stone of Bishop John Morgan – is evidence for the position of St Davids at the crossroads of medieval seaborne trade.

Oh, and there were also Welsh cakes.

On the Sunday a smaller group made it out to St Non’s Chapel and photographed the very distinctive shelly limestone of the indent which now forms the doorstep of the retreat house chapel. Could be Purbeck … could be Snowdrop … the jury is still out.

There will be a more detailed report in the next Newsletter.

Gallery

• Careful examination of the indent in the choir