"Staff and students from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales Lampeter, recently conducted a two week survey at Swyddffynnon village near Ystrad Meurig on the northern edge of Cors Caron and just three miles from Strata Florida Abbey; the Cistercian landlords of much of this area during the Middle Ages.

I am project officer for the survey and believe that not only does this annual survey give students the skills and training necessary to become good field archaeologists as part of their archaeology degree, but it also contributes to our research programme of survey and excavation in and around the Medieval Cistercian Abbey at Strata Florida.

We know that the Abbey was founded originally by a Norman knight around 1164, but when the powerful Rhys ap Gruffudd managed to regain control over this area of mid and west Wales. Rhys became the abbey's main patron, granting vast swathes of upland Ceredigion to the monks and it became Wales' largest monastic estate at over 80 thousand acres.

Because this estate was so huge, it appears that the monks split the estate into smaller areas known as granges, each with its own administrative centre or village. In order to manage the grange of Mefenydd, we think that the village of Swyddffynnon was probably developed during the 12th century.

The village would have acted as an administrative centre and included a 'cwrt' for the estate manager as well as a corn mill, smithy and a grange chapel named Capel y Groes. This church building is no longer visible but, using tithe maps dating to the 1840s, archaeology staff and students have been able to locate the site of the lost building just south of the village on a former trackway that may have been an ancient routeway over the bog.

We expect further geophysical survey will be able to locate the remains of the building's foundations so that its exact size and shape can then be determined.

Field survey projects such as this enable us to learn more about the Medieval way of life in this area.

Combining it with other techniques such as aerial and topographical survey we have been able to start reconstructing the medieval landscape and we have located other important Medieval settlements all the way around the edge of Cors Caron, at Fulbrook, Ystrad Meurig and Pontrhydfendigaid for example.

This investigation has also allowed us to determine that many of the farms in this area are also Medieval, in some cases as old as 800 years.

Students are back in the field soon with the Department's annual research excavation near the Abbey entrance and a public open day on Saturday 6 June 2009 when visitors we be able to look at the excavation of a medieval gatehouse complex as well as some of the artefacts which will be on display for the first time.

Further information about the Strata Florida Research Project can be seen through the link on the right hand side of this page."

Article by Jemma Bezant