Grief at Llanboidy

A masterpiece memorialises the life of an extraordinary man in a Carmarthenshire village, as Richard Davies recounts

The charming village of Llanboidy lies in west Carmarthenshire. Tradition says that the village name is derived from beudy, the Welsh word for cowshed, as St Brynach, the sixth century patron of the church, supposedly found shelter in such a building: others state he founded the area’s first church in a cowshed.

The present settlement is in many respects an estate village, the handiwork of the local squire, W R H Powell of the 3,500 acre Maesgwynne estate. His hand can be seen in many of the public buildings in the area: Pevsner lists, amongst other structures, the Maesgwynne Arms, the market hall, the primary school, a small courtyard of estate houses which carries the name of Piccadily Square as well as a drinking fountain which commemorates Powell’s efforts in supplying the village with a water supply. The parish church, too, benefitted from his largesse and he paid for the 1878 restoration.

It may not be a surprise that the squire founded his own pack of foxhounds of which he was the Master for fifty years, but, more unusual, he laid out his own race course! However, what is most surprising about this man, who was MP for Carmarthenshire between 1880-1885 and West Carmarthenshire between 1885 and his death in 1889, was his markedly radical views. Author Dr Denley Owen lists some of his beliefs: ‘he advocated the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales, education for all, tenants rights, expansion of the franchise, local democracy, Home Rule for Ireland and for Wales. Powell may have gone to Church on Sunday but for the rest of the week he was a dissenter!’

When Powell died in 1889, not for him a plaque on the church wall or a stained glass window, but, rather, the family commissioned Cardiff-born

W Goscome John to produce a memorial. For John, who had studied with Rodin and who would become one of the leading sculptors of his generation, this was his first major commission. What he produced was a ‘Scantily dressed female figure, either Truth or Despair, leaning, abandoned in grief, against a wall. The emotion is palpable…’ (Pevsner). This masterpiece, stood for many years in Llanboidy churchyard, but due to the effects of the weather, the wise decision was taken to move it inside the church, where it can be seen in the south transept.