Lower Machen

When we were away, my friend Darren who is a professional photographer, that I occasionally do some astro-photography with, wanted an aerial photograph of the church in Lower Machen, St Michael & All Angels, as an opening photo to a wedding he's doing here shortly.

As the sun was out, and it's only a couple of minutes away, I took the opportunity to get it done for him. The blip photo shows the 12th Century church that houses the tombs of many of The Morgan family that owned all the land for many miles, including Tredegar Park House - the finest in Wales. They also owned Plas Machen Manor house (built on behalf of Thomas Morgan in 1490) which you can see in the distance, above the church. There has been a church at or near this location since the 6th century and possible before as it is in the centre of a Roman Village and there are some roman stones used in it's construction.

The Romans were present at this location from AD75 until about AD400 as it was one of the major places in the Empire for Lead mining.