This passage forms part of historian Fred Hando’s journey through Gwent. We pick up where we left off last time, with his arrival in the village of St Mellons.

This church is dedicated to St Mellon. According to one authority, this saint, also referred to as Melo or Melanius, was born at Cardiff, became Bishop of Rouen, where he built the first cathedral in AD 270, and planted Christianity in Gwent. 'Llaneirwg' – the Welsh name for the church – may refer to the complexion of Melanius; it is more probably a reference to a saint named Lleirwg.

There is a tendency to discredit the story of Melanius, Bishop of Rouen. No student of history, however, will deny the connection between south-east Wales and north-west France, a connection which continued throughout the Dark Ages. Three centuries after St Mellon's days the powerful monastery of Llancarvan was ruled over by an Irish monk named Brandan.

A lady of Gwent, on pilgrimage to the monastery, gave to the world a son, whom Brandan named Macout or Malo. Obeying the order of God – I am here translating from French record – who wished him to admire the marvels of creation, Brandan and his 'moines-navigateurs' set out on voyages of exploration. Malo, now a young man, accompanied Brandan, and at the end of seven years of wandering, and encountering all manner of danger, Brandan died in the year AD 578, possibly in Jersey.

Visitors to St Malo should make the short sea trip to the island of Cezembre, where stands to this day the oratory consecrated to St Brandan of Llancarvan – the oratory visited by the maidens of the mainland, who never fail to kneel in the grotto to beg from St Brandan the blessing of a good husband!

The church of St Mellons, as I found on that July afternoon, has a dignity and an atmosphere all of its own. This partly explained by its proportions, partly by its splendid 'cradle-roof,' partly by its unique plan.

The main entrance was at the base of the tower, but this entrance was unfortunately changed into a window, and the main entrance blocked, the south porch taking its place. Strong and square, needing no buttresses the embattled tower seems to command from its hill-top the coastal plain, with outposts of Christianity at St Brides, Peterstone, Marshfield and Rumney.

There is no suggestion within the nave and aisle lay-out. The whole church is 105 feet long, the nave opening by one arch into the chancel, and by another and smaller arch into the north chapel. A large 'squint' enabled the occupants to this chapel to see the priest at the altar.

The south chapel has two arches opening into the nave and one into the chancel but the carved clusters of foliage and grotesque heads were removed from the roof of this chapel in one of the restorations.

There is some good glass in the windows of St Mellons, but why is a reredos of foreign stone allowed to obscure the lower portions of the east window? I should like to see here an oak reredos, in scale and in tune with the excellent screen.

With the fourteenth century windows (and one of earlier date), it swonderful roof, its fifteenth century tower and porch, its beautiful lych-gate, its organ, and especially its position overlooking the channel, St Mellons Church holds a unique place in the annals of Christianity in Gwent.

Did not a Bassaleg farmer once offer to bet me a half-crown that the 'Roman' road above his fields was a hundred years old if it was a day?

In most instanced our earthen mounds were raised by the Normans, and certainly 'Cas-bach' (Castleton) must be related as Mr John Kyrle Fletcher pointed out, to the 'castles' of Maesglas and Rhymney. If we take Maesglas and Cas-bach, they are singularly alike. Neither mound shows any trace of masonry, but notable residences were built near both – the house at Castleton being owned in 1497 by John Kemeys, coroner of Wentloog, and the house of 'Maisglaise' in Leland's time by Henry Kemeys, 'a man of means.'

The mounds, therefore were thrown up by the Normans as their first attempts at the defence of newly-occupied territory. Any dwellings would be in the nature of a 'keep' on the mound until more peaceful conditions permitted permanent dwellings, and these became incorporated, at Maesglas, into the farm-buildings now demolished, and at Castleton in the modern Wentloog castle.

From St Mellons continue along the A48 to Castleton where the Wentloog Castle Hotel is on the left.

ENTERING the grounds of Wentloog Castle, I was welcomed by a host of daffodils shining under a noble cedar. The lawn which had suffered so much during the war was now fully recovered and the house – which had suffered more – was again its old gracious self. Camellias bloomed in the conservatory, and the sunshine was beautific.

My charming hostess, Australian-born, has more than her fair share of zest. Like most from the dominions she was anxious to soak her mind in the lore of the motherland, and I was astonished and delighted to find how well-informed she was about her adopted country, and what taste she and her husband had displayed in the restoration of the house and grounds.

A prettier castle mound I have never seen, for primroses and anemones and crocuses peered out from among the rhododendron bushes.

The view from the summit commanded Wentloog and the channel on the south and our oldest road on the north, and the temptation is of course to connect this defensive mound with the prehistoric camps of Coed Defaid and Penylan and the great monolith at Druidstone.

This is an extract from Hando’s Gwent, Volume One, edited by Chris Barber