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Description
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Rhosili
Image 1:
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Rhosili's parish church.This long, low, 14th century church, which has a saddleback roof on its west tower, also has a fine Norman doorway inside the south porch.
Image 2:
In the southwest corner of the churchyard is this touching monument to mariners who perished at sea.
Image 3, 4: Inside the south porch is this fine Norman doorway, an outstanding example of 12th century craftsmanship in Gower. The archway, with its side shafts, chevrons, and dogtooth on the hoodmould, may once have formed the chancel arch of an original Norman church entombed long ago by sand dunes.
Image 5:
The nave, chancel, altar and west window of St Mary's Church.
Image 6:
Nave and chancel.
Image 7:
Altar and west window.
Image 8:
East wall and the roof timbers above the nave.
Image 9:
The Edgar Evans memorial plaque.
Image 10:
Petty Officer Edgar Evans
Photography by Herbert Ponting
On the north wall of the nave of St Mary's Church is a marble plaque (above) in memory of the death of Edgar Evans, a petty officer in the Royal Navy. Edgar Evans (shown left) was born in 1876 at Rhosili and joined the Royal Navy in 1891. He served in Captain Robert Scott's Discovery Antarctic expedition of 1901-1904. He later joined Scott's Terra Nova expedition and was a member of the party of five men who reached the South Pole on 17th January 1912, only to discover that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had already conquered the Pole exactly one month earlier. The entire Scott party lost their lives on the 800-mile trek back to their base camp. Evans died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier; Oates walked to his death in a blizzard to save his comrades, uttering the now famous last words "I am just going outside and may be some time"; the remaining members of the party, Wilson, Bowers, and Scott, died in their tent of cold and starvation.
Image 11:
The Scott expedition party at the South Pole on 18th January 1912.Edgar Evans is in the centre, seated.
Photography by H. R. Bowers
[Archive photographs from Scott's Last Voyage - publication details below]
Sources
A Guide to Gower, 4th edition published 1979 by The Gower Society, Swansea.
Scott's Last Voyage - Through the Antarctic Camera of Herbert Ponting, edited by Ann Savours, published 1974 by Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, London. ISBN 0-283-98139-3
The Old Parish Churches of Gwent, Glamorgan and Gower, by Mike Salter, published 1991 by Folly Publications, Malvern. ISBN 1-871731-08-9
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