Welsh Journals

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FIFTH SERIES.—VOL. IV, NO. XIV. APRIL 1887. NEATH ABBEY. {Read at the Visit of the Association, Tuesday, August 24, 1886.) The plan of the Abbey, which has been made for me by Mr. D. Godfrey Thomas of Neath, is in the main an enlargement of the plan contained in Francis' book of Neath and its Abbey, which was made by Mr. J. Jen¬ kins in 1833 for the Rev. Henry Hey Knight, the learned and genial Rector of Neath ; but it has been slightly added to, by way of illustration, from Specimens of In¬ laid Tiles from Neath Abbey, published by the Neath Philosophical Institution, a copy of which has been lent for reference for this Meeting. The plan also supplies an illustration of some suggestions which this paper offers, possibly for the first time. It exhibits the site of the church lying to the north of the conventual buildings, of which some considerable portions have fallen during the last thirty years. This was probably contributed to by the vibration caused by trains passing along the adjacent railway. Taking the plan and the portions still standing, we have many safe indices of what the original parts of the sacred edifice were ; and it requires only a small effort of the ima¬ gination to conceive the noble building in its entirety, with its grand west window, its lofty nave, and pillared aisles ; its handsome transepts, choir-screen, rood-loft, and high altar, part of the site of which has been 5th sek., vol. iv. 6