The village is named after Saint Maches (Latin:
Machuta), a daughter of Saint
Gwynllyw or Woolos and sister of Saint
Cadoc, who according to tradition lived a humble life as a shepherdess in the 5th century but was killed by robbers stealing her finest ram.
Saint Tathan, Abbot of nearby
Caerwent, to whom the murderers confessed their crime, built a church on the spot where she was killed, which became known as Merthyr Maches and later Llanfaches (the letter
m mutating to
-f- in
Welsh). The parish church largely dates from the 14th century and is dedicated to Saint
Dubricius (Welsh
Dyfrig), with Bishops Transcripts dating back to 1725. The church is Grade II
listed building. The minister is Revd D. C. Frett.
The First Independent Church in Wales The first
Independent Church in Wales was founded at Llanvaches in 1638 by
William Wroth (1576–1642), Rector from 1617. In 1633,
King Charles I, advised by the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
William Laud, reissued the "
Declaration of Sports". This listed the sports that were permitted on Sundays and other
holy days, and was published to counteract the growing
Puritan calls for strict abstinence on the
Sabbath day. Wroth defied Charles' instruction to read the Declaration to his congregation, and in 1634 the
Bishop of Llandaff reported him to the
Court of High Commission, seeking to remove him from his position in the Church. In 1638 Wroth, along with fellow dissenter
Walter Craddock, resigned, but continued to preach and gather followers. His preaching became so popular that people travelled from
Somerset,
Gloucester,
Hereford,
Radnor and
Glamorgan to Llanvaches to hear him, and it became necessary for him to preach in the churchyard because the church was too small to accommodate all those who attended. By 1639, although he had not formally left the Church of England, Wroth is likely to have been ejected from his living. He set up his
Congregationalist chapel, "according to the New England pattern", completed in 1639, with the help of the leading
Dissenter,
Henry Jessey. The historic meeting at Llanvaches in November 1639 marked the real beginning of
Non-conformity in Wales. Wroth died shortly before the outbreak of the first
English Civil War, and was buried beneath the church porch at Llanvaches. His will, at one time on display in the church vestry, concluded: :
"I leave my body to be buried where ye Lord shall please to call for mee praying him to bring my hoarie-head into the grave in his peace which passeth all understanding" In 1854
George Borrow passed the chapel on his walk from Newport to
Chepstow, a journey later included in his 1862
Wild Wales. The current Tabernacle
URC Chapel was remodelled in 1924.
Llanvaches Roman coin hoard found at Llanvaches in 2006 In 2006 a
hoard of 599 silver
denarii, hidden in a locally made cooking pot, was found at Llanvaches by a
metal detectorist. The coins, which are dated to about AD 160, are now held at the
National Roman Legion Museum in
Caerleon. ==Amenities==