- Worm is a British / Welsh river name meaning dark stream. The Worm Brook is here.
- original dedication may have been to Saint Thomas
- In c.1189 King Richard I granted the manor and Church to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem
(the Hospitallers) at Dinmore (see Garway). The area was part of Trivel Forest (see Kilpeck).
- The Church was lengthened and the tower added in the 13th century. Some of this fabric, such
as the north nave doorway and the base section of the tower, has survived by being incorporated into the
19thcentury restoration work.
- The stained-glass includes, from the 14th century, Saints Peter, Paul, Edmund the King,
Catherine and Stephen, and a group depicting the Massacre of the Innocents. The Virgin and Child is 15
th century. Other fragments are 17th century as is the panelling.
- The partly Jacobean pulpit and other woodwork were 19th century gifts.
- The principal monuments are of the Clive family, descendants of Clive of India, who live at nearby
Whitfield Court.
- Across the field behind the Church is a surviving bank of an 18th-19th centuries Tramroad,
part of the Abergavenny to Hereford Tramroad. See:
here.
- The evocative ruins of the Augustine Priory stand in the beautiful Honddu (pronounced Hon-thee) Valley,
a river name meaning pleasant / dark. Llan Welsh for Church and -thony derives from honddu.
The valley runs parallel with Offa's Dyke. Wigmore Abbey was Augustinian too.
- William de Lacy, while hunting, took refuge in a Chapel of St. David here, had a spiritual experience
and decided to become a contemplative hermit. He was joined Ersinius, a priest, then by others and
Ersinius became the first Prior.
- In 1118, during the reign of King Henry I, the group became Augustinian canons and were endowed by Hugh
de Lacy, William de Lacy's richer relative. See previously about the Norman de Lacy family at Craswall
and Longtown.
- After King Henry's death in 1135 the Welsh had some success against the Normans and the Priory
was abandoned for fifty years. Most of the canons moved to Lanthony Secunda in Gloucester.
- Llanthony recovered somewhat but seems to have been viewed locally as an English incursion. It
suffered from other attacks, including from the forces of Owain Glyndwr. When it was dissolved under
King Henry VIII there were only a Prior and four canons left.
- Despite a succession of later owners the boundary wall and other features of the Priory have survived.
See CADW (pronounced cadoo)
- The Augustinians followed the Rule laid down by St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo in North
Africa. Most of the regulations they lived by were similar to other Orders such as the Benedictines and
Cistercians. They differed in going out into the community to preach, and tend the sick. Their hospitals
were the foundation for Bart's (St. Bartholomew's) and St Thomas' in London. They also welcomed
outsiders into their Churches and, as a result, the naves of Augustinian Churches are usually large.
