Medieval Whitchurch
The nucleus of the medieval settlements at Whitchurch was formed by two small edifices, one ecclesiastical, one military, the church and the castle. Little trace now survives of either of these structures, but for several centuries they were the symbols of ecclesiastical and secular authority and a focus for the affairs of the small, scattered population that lived in Whitchurch.
One of the earliest references to Whitchurch occurs in a document of 1126, the Agreement of Woodstock, whereby the Norman Lord of Glamorgan, Robert Consul, Earl of Gloucester, made partial restitution to the Bishop of Llandaff of properties and privileges seized by the Normans during their first incursions into Glamorgan. The Agreement refers to:
'The chapel of Stuntaf (capella de stuntaf) and the tithes of that vill, and the land which the earl gives to the chapel for a priest... provided that the parishioners visit the mother church at Llandaff at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. And that from the same vill the bodies of the dead be carried to the same mother church to be buried'.
Stuntaf has been identified as Whitchurch, and this document makes it clear that a chapelry was already established in Whitchurch at the beginning of the twelfth
century and that it was served by a priest from the cathedral church of Llandaff. Clearly, too, a small community was living in the vicinity of the chapel for the fact that a priest was to be maintained from the tithes of the vill pre-supposes a small resident population.
The site of this chapelry still remains uncertain. Stuntaf alias Ystum Taf (bend in the river Taff) may indicate a location near Melingriffith, close to the river. The later medieval names for Whitchurch 'Album Monasterium' and 'Blancminster' could suggest some form of monastic settlement associated with the Celtic foundation at Llandaff, or merely a simple whitewashed chapel, and historians have long speculated on these possibilities. If there was an early chapelry or monastic settlement in Whitchurch, whether at Melingriffith or elsewhere, no evidence has survived to recall its existence other than the ambiguous 'capella de stuntaf' reference of 1126. Recent (1973) archaeological excavation of the churchyard in Old Church Road revealed the foundations of a twelfth century ecclesiastical building but the site of any earlier foundation must remain a conjecture.
Evidence for the continuing existence of the Whitchurch chapelry and the small community which it served is scant throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Not until 1492 does a positive reference to the church occur, when an account of Matthew Deio 'prevost of Whytchurche' refers to a plot of land taken from the lord's waste on the North side of the church. Here, undoubtedly, is an ecclesiastical building on the site of what is now the old churchyard in Old Church Road. Half a century later (1547) one Morgan ap David ap Jevan goch of Whitchurch, yeoman, conveyed to his brother Howell a house called Ty Du with gardens is invariably associated with Tyn-y-Pwll and there can be little doubt that the 1547 document refers to a road leading from Tyn-y-Pwll towards the chapel at Whitchurch, a chapel standing on the Old Church Road site and dedicated to St. Dionisus.
In the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century the chapel was rebuilt or enlarged, for the massive south porch that was a feature of the old church can be ascribed with some certainty to this period. Leland, the antiquarian, writing c1536 refers to 'Egluis Newith' in Llandaff parish and this 'new' church was probably the first to be dedicated to St. Mary. Over the next three centuries the church was enlarged and restored on several occasions. Until the mid-nineteenth century it continued as a chapelry of Llandaff, served by the vicars choral of the cathedral, but the same century that witnessed the creation of Whitchurch as a separate ecclesiastical parish with its own resident priest also saw the final decay of the ancient church and its replacement by a new St. Mary's.
The first edition of the ordnance survey of 1880 shows a 'tumulus' opposite St. Mary's church in Old Church Road, and many present day residents of Whitchurch will remember the low circular mound behind Treoda House. This insignificant feature, now obliterated by modern flats, was all that remains of Whitchurch castle.