Walk 8. The Three Churches
Wolvesnewton, Newchurch and Kilgwrrwg
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4.75 miles; hilly with magnificent views. Wolvesnewton is situated between Llangwm (B4235) and Devauden (B4293).
1 Start the walk with your back to Wolvesnewton Church. Turn right along the lane; go between two houses and after the garage of Red House, enter the field by a gate. Go straight across to a stile and another field. Cross the field and track and another stile into a third field.
Veer right to the top left hand corner 2.
Go over the stile, turn left through the field to a gate and proceed straight across the road 3.
Turn right, then immediately left into a wide track. Follow the New Church sign posts and turn right up an incline, above the Model Farm, noticing the unique "cross style" of the buildings. Go through a gate and continue on this path uphill, with the wood, Coed-y-Duke on the left until you reach a tarmac lane 4.
Turn left and proceed along the lane, passing St. Peter's Church, Newchurch and the sign Kilgwrrwg, until you come to a cottage on the left 5. (The cottage is the last building on the left just a few yards past a fingerpost on the right, pointing to Lanes End). Go through the gate and keeping to the concrete path, past the cottages, enter the field through a gate.
Proceed downhill to the right crossing two stiles. Pass diagonally down to the bottom right hand corner of a long field and enter the wood through a gate. Continue downhill, cross over a woodland path and go over a stile into a field. Then make for Kilgwrrwg House in the valley 6. Look for the stile to the left of the buildings and go straight on for a few yards, past the outbuildings. Turn right towards the big house (which is of 16th century origin), then left along the rose hedge, keeping the hedge on your left, down the slope to a footbridge over the brook.
Cross and walk up the steps towards Kilgwrrwg Church 7, nestling within the circular stone walls of the small churchyard. Beyond the church in the valley is a small copse. Go diagonally left downhill to a bridge over the stream in the corner of the field. Go over the bridge and a stile and walk uphill to the right of a solitary oak tree. You will see across the field to the right a wood called Cae Pwtto. Make for the stile at the edge of the wood 8.
Go through the wood to a stile in the left hand corner leading into a field. Go down the left hand side of the field; go through several gates and pass to the left of a green corrugated barn. Continue up the track ahead to Lower House Farm at the road junction 9. Cross the road and return uphill to Wolvesnewton Church.
Some history about the ChurchesThe Church of the Holy Cross, Kilgwrrwg
The small promontory on which the present church sits has been a site for Christian worship for nearly 1300 years.
The present building is probably 12th century. However the cross on the south side is pre-Norman and nearly 1000 years old. The church bell dates from 1696 and was donated by William Nicholas, whose tomb on the south east side is well preserved.
A major restoration took place in 1989/1990 when the roof was removed, new timbers installed and the original roof tiles refitted. Near the south eastern corner of the church is the war grave of Richard Morgan, Able Seaman from HMS Garland, who is understood to be the last British seaman to die before the 1918 Armistice.
The Church of St. Thomas-a-Becket, WolvesnewtonThis Church at Wolvesnewton is an old stone building, partly in the early English style and has 13th century saddleback roofed tower with three bells.
There are no graves on the north side of the Church which is considered to be the "devil's side." The place name Wolvesnewton comes from a 1535 reference to a Wolf family who held the Manor in the 14th century.
St. Peter's Church, NewchurchThere are lovely views from the rear of the churchyard. The church was extensively repaired in 1865.