(MG 11) Cwrt-y-bettws Grange from “An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Glamorgan..” By Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales – 1982 In 1289 Neath Abbey negotiated an agreement with Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, whereby the monks exchanged an extensive area of land for certain rents. Part of this land was bounded by a line running along the hill of ‘Coitfranc’ as far as S. Margaret’s Chapel, (No. MG10), then striking across the ‘Mora’ (i.e. Morfa, the Crymlyn Bog) as far as the ‘Pulkanan’ (i.e. the Crymlyn Brook) and so down to the sea. In this area it would seem that the Abbey had at least one grange, if not two (Nos. MG10 and MG11). At the Dissolution ‘Curtbedhowse’ was valued at 40s., together with a mill worth £4 and two weirs worth 16s. By 1541 it was in the tenure of Sir Richard Cromwell who was paying rent for ‘Bethouse Graunge containing 16 acres of land, arable and meadow’ (Arch. Camb., 1887 pp. 101-105; Birch II, p. 150; Phillips, p.89). The grange was located at or in the immediate vicinity of the present farmhouse of Cwrt-y-bettws (7234 9560), a little over 2 km S.W. of the Abbey and 540m from the W. bank of the R. Nedd. The earlier house of ca. 1580 was rebuilt in 1805. In 1956 the construction of an arterial road threatened certain remains in the field E. of the house (at 7242 9557), and these were partially excavated before their destruction. They consisted of: (i) On the N. a number of small squarish fields outlined by banks 3-6m wide and 40-100cm high. (ii) At the centre (7241 9555) , banks 2.5m wide and 50cm high occupied a low mound, 70 cm high on the W. and 2.5m on the E., traditionally the site of the grange chapel. They presented no coherent plan but appeared to include a room about 2.5m square. At 12m to the S.E. was a stone covered well. (iii) On the S., excavation revealed traces of a rectangular stone building, perhaps about 16m long from E. to W. by 5m wide, with walls 60cm thick and from 30cm to 1.3m high. To the S.W. of it and aligned N.W. – S.E.was a length of walling 7m long containing an entrance; within (i.e. to the E.of) and against this wall was a circular kiln 2m in diameter from which a stone gutter led south eastward to a block of masonry 1.2m high incorporating the remains of two ovens. Small objects found during the excavation included fragments of clay oven-lining, bone, oyster shells, and potsherds including green-glazed and plain brown and black ware. Most of the pottery was dated late 16th to mid 18th century, but the floor of a paved passage running at right angles to the oven building yielded a fragment of 14th century pottery. A boundary wall contemporary with the oven building had been built along the line of this passage, suggesting complete reconstruction of an earlier site. The buildings seem mostly to have been purely domestic and of post-monastic date, but it is possible that they overlie the remains of a monastic grange. All are now destroyed. Traces of a paved road, probably medieval rather than Roman as claimed by “The Transactions of the Neath Antiquarian Society, Vol. VIII (1937-39), p.30”, were found in a field to the W. running from 7227 9555 to 7236 9555 (a distamce of 80m) and making directly for the remains described above.