AN open afternoon will be held in Penarth next month organised by the Penarth Area Ministry and Penarth Civic Society

St Peter's Church is the oldest building in Penarth and this charming place is holding an open afternoon from 12 noon to 5pm on Sunday, 15 September.

Free entry. 

In addition, local historian Chris Riley will be talking at 2.30pm on the church and old Cogan. Tickets for the talk are limited to 40 and can be reserved at

https://www.penarthsociety.org.uk/event-details/st-peters-church-old-cogan-open-afternoon-chris-riley-history-talk-tickets 

Tickets for Chris's talk are free but donations to the church would be most appreciated. 

Chris has indicated that his talk will cover……

Cogan - the land, the people, the church through 800 years 

For centuries almost no-one lived in Cogan, and nothing happened there.  True?  There's an old church, still there, just, but little else.   Then suddenly a new Cogan turned up a mile away.  How did that happen?

Cogan's history is full of puzzles. It was rich, then poor. After the Norman invasion, it became a manor, with a castle, a village and a mill – what happened to them? Its houses disappeared, its church fell into ruin. What happened to Little Cogan and where was Coganfawr?

The church now has some celebrated features – its herringbone masonry, the graves of the Herbert family, a stylish reredos, a gravestone carved by Iolo Morganwg – yet perhaps none of these is perhaps quite what it seems.

Wreckers, murder, a ghost, a wedding on the church roof, a valuable Tudor dairy with 32 cattle and even an international port. Perhaps more happened in Cogan than we realise.