Parkmill

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title: "Parkmill" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hamlets-in-swansea", "populated-places-on-the-gower-peninsula", "pennard-(community)"] topic_path: "general/hamlets-in-swansea" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkmill" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
static_image	Ffordd, Parkmill, Gwyr.JPG
static_image_width	300px
static_image_caption	The ford, at Parkmill, Gower
coordinates
country	Wales
official_name	Parkmill
welsh_name	Melin y Parc
unitary_wales	Swansea
lieutenancy_wales	West Glamorgan
constituency_westminster	Gower
constituency_welsh_assembly	Gower,
South Wales West Electoral Region
post_town	SWANSEA ()
postcode_area	SA
postcode_district	SA3
dial_code	01792
os_grid_reference	SS545891
::

Parkmill () is a village in the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, midway between the villages of Penmaen and Ilston, about 8 mi west of Swansea, and about 1 mi from the north coast of the Bristol Channel. The village lies to the north of the A4118, the main South Gower road between Swansea and Port Eynon, in a wooded area, at the bottom of a valley.

The building at the centre of the village is a former school that is now home to the West Glamorgan Girl Guides Activity Centre. Pennard golf course lies immediately to the south of the village. Parkmill is in the Gower ward of the City and County of Swansea.

Parkmill's only religious building is the Mount Pisgah United Reformed Church, a Congregational chapel, erected in 1822 and rebuilt in 1890.

The area is little changed from the mid 19th century, when Samuel Lewis said in his 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849): The hamlet of Park-Mill, forming the most populous part of the parish, [Ilston] is yet extremely rural; and the surrounding scenery, which is characterized by features of tranquillity and seclusion, is enlivened by the small rivulet called Pennarth Pill, winding along a beautiful dell, in which are the ruins of an ancient chapel. On this stream a cloth manufactory was established early in the present century, but it has been discontinued. The 'cloth manufactory', a 12th-century water-powered corn and saw mill, at Parkmill has since been renovated and a rural crafts centre sited in it, called the Gower Heritage Centre.{{cite web |title=Gower Heritage Centre |url=http://www.gowerheritagecentre.co.uk/main.htm |access-date=2007-11-06 |publisher=Gower Heritage Centre |year=2008 |work=Gower Heritage Centre website

Parc le Breos

Parkmill once lay within a Medieval deer park, Parc le Breos, which was established in the 1221–32 CE by John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Gower as an enclosed area of about 2,000 acre. As well as the deer, during the 14th century the park received an income from agistment, pannage, sales of wild honey, ferns and dead wood and from rabbits, though whether these were domestic warrens or free warrens is not known.

The park is now mainly farmland and has a 19th-century Hunting Lodge, which is now an hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre called Parc le Breos, built about 1 mi east north east of Parkmill{{cite web |title = Parc-le-Breos |url = http://www.parc-le-breos.co.uk/index.htm |access-date = 2008-11-06 |publisher = Parc-le-Breos |year = 2008 |work = Parc-le-Breos website |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081204070203/http://www.parc-le-breos.co.uk/index.htm |archive-date = 2008-12-04 | last = Leighton | first = David | title = A fresh look at Parc le Breos | publisher = Gower Society | date = 1999 | pages = 71–79 | issn = 0962-0540}}

Parc Cwm long cairn

The Parc Cwm long cairn, or Parc le Breos burial chamber, is a partly restored, prehistoric, megalithic chambered long barrow, built between 5,800 BP and 6,000 BP (before present), during the early Neolithic period, about three quarters of a mile (1.1 km) north west of Parkmill.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Parc_le_Breos,_Gwyr_y_cwrt_o'r_dde.JPG" caption="km}} from Parkmill"] ::

The cromlech is located in Coed-y-Parc, on the floor of a dry narrow valley in about 500 acre of woodland, owned and managed by Forest Enterprise (Wales), in a limestone gorge, at an elevation of about 50 ft above sea level. Pedestrian access is allowed and is free, with free parking available for 12–15 cars about 650 ft from the site. On the opposite side of the lane to the car park a kissing gate, wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through, leads to an asphalt track that runs past the cromlech and the length of the gorge, allowing flat, disabled access to within about 10 ft of the site. Parc le Breos burial chamber is maintained by Cadw (), the Welsh Historic Environment Agency.

There are caves further along Parc Cwm valley, Cathole Cave and Llethryd tooth cave, which have been used from Mesolithic to Medieval times. In the Neolithic period, corpses may have been placed in the caves until they had decomposed, before the bones were moved to the cromlech.

''La Charrette''

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/La_Charrette,_Parkmill,_Gwyr.JPG" caption="''La Charrette'', at Parkmill, Gower"] ::

La Charrette is recognised by the British Film Institute as the smallest cinema in Wales. The 23-seat venue, built from a disused railway carriage, was sited in a back garden in Gorseinon, near Swansea, and began showing films in 1953.

The cinema was originally constructed and run by the late Gwyn Phillips (who died in 1996), who fell in love with the movies while working as a projectionist as a teenager. Safety concerns, following wear and tear to its wood-and-steel structure, caused La Charrette to close. A visit by film critic Mark Kermode for BBC2's The Culture Show, in October 2007, resulted in the tiny venue being given a special send-off in February 2008. The black tie event consisted of the world premiere of the Danny Boyle film Alien Love Triangle (2002), starring Kenneth Branagh, Alice Connor, Courteney Cox and Heather Graham. Branagh made a personal appearance at the screening, walking up the red carpet laid between two end of terrace houses in Gorseinon, before watching the film—and special messages recorded by Cox and Graham—with Kermode and Rita Phillips, Gwyn Phillips' widow.

After the screening, the cinema was dismantled. It was rebuilt at the Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill, where it has reopened.

References

(2008). "Iddole – Is-Y-Graig, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1849), pp. 440–443.". University of London & History of Parliament Trust.
(2006). "PARC LE BREOS, MEDIEVAL DEER-PARK". Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
(2006). "PARC LE BREOS BURIAL CHAMBER;PARC CWM LONG CAIRN". Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
(2008). "About Cadw". Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government.
(2008). "Places to visit: Parc le Breos Burial Chamber". Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government.
(2007-10-22). "CAT HOLE CAVE, PARKMILL". Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
(2008-02-23). "BBC News – In pictures – In pictures: La Charrette". BBC News.
(2008-02-18). "BBC News / Wales / South West Wales / Hollywood ending for tiny cinema". BBC News.
(2008-02-24). "BBC News / Wales / South West Wales / Starry last night for tiny cinema". BBC News.

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