Lost Churches of Wales - Minor Chapels of the Gower
Not all the churches on the Gower peninsula were major places of worship where many people gathered. There were a number of very tiny chapels that served a small group of people yet had a very big place in the history of the Gower, and it is those lost chapels that are highlighted here.
Backinston Chapel
This chapel stood alone in a meadow overlooking Bishopton valley. It was indeed a tiny chapel, less than 200 square feet in total. Most of the chapel walls have survived to the present day, although the natural foliage has taken over.
It is rumoured that that among the small amount of Middle Age chapels that have survived through time, this one was regarded as a sanctuary by the parish of the area. Hunted criminals could make their way to this chapel and if he reached it ahead of those that chased him, he could escape his fate. This medieval game of cops and robbers has never been properly documented, but it does serve to give the chapel its place in Welsh folklore.
St Peter’s Chapel, Caswell
The site of St. Peter’s remains a mystery today. No one is quite sure of the site’s true stature in the religious happenings of the Middle Ages. Excavation of the site revealed an established grouping of buildings, but no one can document their purpose in relation to the churches and chapels of the surrounding area.
The excavation uncovered a priest’s house, small chapel and a holy well. When first found the site showed the foundations and two intact walls and a window in one of the buildings. Now those too have succumbed to time and have been laid to waste. A well dedicated to St. Peter was discovered during the 1800s and was a wonderful example of an masonry well-chamber, but the ravages of time have left only a small depression above a small brook is all that remains of this holy spot.
St Michael’s Chapel, Cwrt-y-Carne
There is very little left to mark the site of this chapel, save a few bits of wall that has settled into the marshlands of the Loughor estuary. At the turn of the last century the chapel was still standing minus its roof.
This chapel was perhaps one of the smallest in South Wales, measuring approximately 13x6 meters and containing a porch and bell-cote. At some point during the 12th century the lord of Llandeilo Tal-y-Bont granted the land upon which the chapel sat to Neath Abbey, possibly to be used by peasants working the abbey lands.
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