:Parkmill
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox UK place
| static_image = Ffordd, Parkmill, Gwyr.JPG
| static_image_width = 300px
| static_image_caption = The ford, at Parkmill, Gower
| coordinates = {{coord|51.58274|-4.10132|display=inline,title}}
| country = Wales
| official_name = Parkmill
| welsh_name = Melin y Parc
| unitary_wales = Swansea
| lieutenancy_wales = West Glamorgan
| constituency_westminster = Gower
| constituency_welsh_assembly = Gower,
South Wales West Electoral Region
| post_town = SWANSEA ({{langx|cy|Abertawe}})
| postcode_area = SA
| postcode_district = SA3
| dial_code = 01792
| os_grid_reference = SS545891
}}
{{Gower Peninsula|sidebar=yes}}
Parkmill ({{langx|cy|Melin y Parc}}) is a village in the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, midway between the villages of Penmaen and Ilston, about {{convert|8|mi|km|spell=in}} west of Swansea, and about {{convert|1|mi|km|spell=in}} from the north coast of the Bristol Channel. The village lies to the north of the A4118, the main South Gower road between Swansea and Port Eynon, in a wooded area, at the bottom of a valley.
The building at the centre of the village is a former school that is now home to the West Glamorgan Girl Guides Activity Centre. Pennard golf course lies immediately to the south of the village. Parkmill is in the Gower ward of the City and County of Swansea.
Parkmill's only religious building is the Mount Pisgah United Reformed Church, a Congregational chapel, erected in 1822 and rebuilt in 1890.
The area is little changed from the mid 19th century, when Samuel Lewis said in his 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849):
The hamlet of Park-Mill, forming the most populous part of the parish, [Ilston] is yet extremely rural; and the surrounding scenery, which is characterized by features of tranquillity and seclusion, is enlivened by the small rivulet called Pennarth Pill, winding along a beautiful dell, in which are the ruins of an ancient chapel. On this stream a cloth manufactory was established early in the present century, but it has been discontinued.{{cite web|title=Iddole – Is-Y-Graig , A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1849), pp. 440–443.|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47836&strquery=Park%20mill,%20Gower|access-date=2008-10-28|publisher=University of London & History of Parliament Trust|year=2008|work=British History Online website}}The 'cloth manufactory', a 12th-century water-powered corn and saw mill, at Parkmill has since been renovated and a rural crafts centre sited in it, called the Gower Heritage Centre.{{cite web
|title=Gower Heritage Centre
|url=http://www.gowerheritagecentre.co.uk/main.htm
|access-date=2007-11-06
|publisher=Gower Heritage Centre
|year=2008
|work=Gower Heritage Centre website
}}
Parc le Breos
Parkmill once lay within a Medieval deer park, Parc le Breos, which was established in the 1221–32 CE by John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Gower as an enclosed area of about {{convert|2,000|acre|ha|abbr=off}}. As well as the deer, during the 14th century the park received an income from agistment, pannage, sales of wild honey, ferns and dead wood and from rabbits, though whether these were domestic warrens or free warrens is not known.{{cite web|title=PARC LE BREOS, MEDIEVAL DEER-PARK|url=http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6053097|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223135130/http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6053097|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-12-23|access-date=2008-10-24|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales|year=2006|work=The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website}}
The park is now mainly farmland and has a 19th-century Hunting Lodge, which is now an hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre called Parc le Breos, built about {{convert|1|mi|km|spell=in}} east north east of Parkmill{{cite web
|title = Parc-le-Breos
|url = http://www.parc-le-breos.co.uk/index.htm
|access-date = 2008-11-06
|publisher = Parc-le-Breos
|year = 2008
|work = Parc-le-Breos website
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081204070203/http://www.parc-le-breos.co.uk/index.htm
|archive-date = 2008-12-04
| last = Leighton
| first = David
| title = A fresh look at Parc le Breos
| publisher = Gower Society
| date = 1999
| pages = 71–79
| issn = 0962-0540}}
Parc Cwm long cairn
The Parc Cwm long cairn, or Parc le Breos burial chamber, is a partly restored, prehistoric, megalithic chambered long barrow, built between 5,800 BP and 6,000 BP (before present), during the early Neolithic period, about three quarters of a mile (1.1 km) north west of Parkmill.{{cite web|title=PARC LE BREOS BURIAL CHAMBER;PARC CWM LONG CAIRN|url=http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6052756|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223145706/http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6052756|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-12-23|access-date=2008-10-24|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales|year=2006|work=The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website}}
Image:Parc le Breos, Gwyr y cwrt o'r dde.JPG
The cromlech is located in Coed-y-Parc, on the floor of a dry narrow valley in about {{convert|500|acre|km2}} of woodland, owned and managed by Forest Enterprise (Wales), in a limestone gorge, at an elevation of about {{convert|50|ft|m}} above sea level. Pedestrian access is allowed and is free, with free parking available for 12–15 cars about {{convert|650|ft|m}} from the site. On the opposite side of the lane to the car park a kissing gate, wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through, leads to an asphalt track that runs past the cromlech and the length of the gorge, allowing flat, disabled access to within about {{convert|10|ft|m|spell=in}} of the site. Parc le Breos burial chamber is maintained by Cadw ({{langx|en|to keep}}), the Welsh Historic Environment Agency.{{cite web|title=About Cadw|url=http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=3&lang=en|access-date=2008-08-11|publisher=Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government|year=2008|work=Cadw website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629171439/http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=3&lang=en|archive-date=2011-06-29}}{{cite web|title=Places to visit: Parc le Breos Burial Chamber|url=http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=6&PlaceID=103|access-date=2008-10-24|publisher=Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government|year=2008|work=Cadw website}}
There are caves further along Parc Cwm valley, Cathole Cave and Llethryd tooth cave, which have been used from Mesolithic to Medieval times. In the Neolithic period, corpses may have been placed in the caves until they had decomposed, before the bones were moved to the cromlech.{{cite web|title=CAT HOLE CAVE, PARKMILL|url=http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6053101|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223165939/http://www.coflein.gov.uk/pls/portal/coflein.w_details?inumlink=6053101|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-12-23|access-date=2008-10-30|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales|date=2007-10-22|work=The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website}}
''La Charrette''
Image:La Charrette, Parkmill, Gwyr.JPG
La Charrette is recognised by the British Film Institute as the smallest cinema in Wales.{{cite web|title=BBC News – In pictures – In pictures: La Charrette|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7260429.stm|access-date=2008-11-19|publisher=BBC News|date=2008-02-23|work=BBC News website}} The 23-seat venue, built from a disused railway carriage, was sited in a back garden in Gorseinon, near Swansea, and began showing films in 1953.{{cite web|title=BBC News / Wales / South West Wales / Hollywood ending for tiny cinema|access-date=2008-11-18|publisher=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/wales/south_west/7248253.stm|date=2008-02-18|work=BBC News website}}
The cinema was originally constructed and run by the late Gwyn Phillips (who died in 1996), who fell in love with the movies while working as a projectionist as a teenager. Safety concerns, following wear and tear to its wood-and-steel structure, caused La Charrette to close. A visit by film critic Mark Kermode for BBC2's The Culture Show, in October 2007, resulted in the tiny venue being given a special send-off in February 2008. The black tie event consisted of the world premiere of the Danny Boyle film Alien Love Triangle (2002), starring Kenneth Branagh, Alice Connor, Courteney Cox and Heather Graham. Branagh made a personal appearance at the screening, walking up the red carpet laid between two end of terrace houses in Gorseinon, before watching the film—and special messages recorded by Cox and Graham—with Kermode and Rita Phillips, Gwyn Phillips' widow.{{cite web|title=BBC News / Wales / South West Wales / Starry last night for tiny cinema|access-date=2008-11-18|publisher=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/wales/south_west/7260348.stm|date=2008-02-24|work=BBC News website}}
After the screening, the cinema was dismantled. It was rebuilt at the Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill, where it has reopened.
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
- [http://www.francisfrith.com/search/wales/west+glamorgan/parkmill/parkmill.htm The Francis Firth collection: Parkmill, West Glamorgan]
- [http://www.gowerheritagecentre.co.uk/ Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100112113027/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alexander.thomas1/Swansea%20CAM%20-%20310101%20Parkmill.html SwanseaCam photos of Parkmill]
{{Gower Peninsula}}