Betty Church

Betty Church was a wealthy lady who, although owning a rather large house in Langland (5 Brynfield Road to be exact - now renumbered as 10), preferred to spend much of her time in more modest conditions amongst the woods and wildlife she owned in Cwm Ivy, Llanmadoc. Betty's parents moved to Swansea after the Great War where her father helped build many of Gower's main sewers. Living in Langland, Betty grew up to greatly admire the countryside and took advantage of her home's proximity to the sea to swim every day during the warmer months of the year. Although rich, she did not care for the fancies of expensive clothes (preferring to design and make her own out of simple material) and spent her money practicing one of her more important hobbies - that of gardening. Acquiring some fields and woodland at the foot of Llanmadoc, she had a summer house constructed there and spent much of her time there planting exotic flowers amongst the more indigenous species of flora. At her summer house at Cwm Ivy, Betty would entertain friends and family with picturesque picnics and countryside rambles. The summer house can still be found beneath growing bramble and other undergrowth in the woods.

Betty has been described by her friends as a very kind, if gently eccentric, lady. Her generosity of spirit is perhaps best illustrated with her bequeath of all 3.5 acres of her woodland in Cwm Ivy to the Glamorgan Wildlife Trust upon her death in the 1980's. The Trust, formerly known as the Glamorgan Naturist's Trust, fondly remembered their patron by naming the area after her. Betty also left the Trust a substantial amount of money from which they could protect the woods and surrounding countryside.

There is a wonderful walk to be had by following the path from the entrance of the Betty Church reserve at Llanmadoc, then turning right at Cwm Ivy and taking the gradual slope up to the country road that leads back to your starting point.

The "Betty" Tree