The village of Llanfair near Harlech, in North Wales, is set against beautiful mountain scenery, close to the sea, with wonderful views across Tremadoc Bay looking towards Anglesey.

In the late eighteen eighties my great grandmother and her family visited the village and liked it so much that holidays there became a regular feature of their life. My great grandmother eventually bought the cottage that they stayed in. Over a hundred years later her descendants still own and stay in the same little house.

Although situated in a remote rural area, for my mother and her brother, staying in Llanfair meant coming to a lively village within a farming community. It had a pub, shop, post office, school, the forge, and a slate quarry nearby.

Now, sadly, piece-by-piece, all these institutions have gone. The post office closed last year. The exception is farming, which has thankfully been spared any outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. The slate quarry is now a tourist attraction. But the village still has a very active community.

The name of the village of course, means 'Church of Mary'. The church and its burial ground remain at the heart of the village The present building dates from the twelfth century and was visited by Geraldus Cambrensis in 1188, on his journey through Wales to recruit soldiers for the third crusade. As a small child, one of my earliest memories is of playing shops with a friend on one of the old 'table' tombs, using grass and wild flowers, while the grown ups listened to the sermon. We were thoroughly told off by members of the local congregation!

The church building is plain and rectangular, with high lancet windows in its thick stonewalls. On bright summer Sundays the sun streams through them, giving a great sense of peace and stillness. People who lived at our cottage over a hundred years ago are buried in the churchyard, as are members of my family.

St Mary's Llanfair is the southernmost of six churches managed as part of a very active team ministry.The wife of the current rector indeed, is also rector of the team ministry immediately to the South of Llanfair, which must be a fairly unusual state of affairs!

To me, there has always been a great sense of spirituality about the area around Llanfair. Half a mile across the fields by the edge of the sea is the ancient church of St Tanwg, which is said to have been built originally in the middle ages for services where pilgrims were blessed before setting out by sea across Tremadoc bay to the holy island of Bardsey. Today the church has frequently to be rescued from the ceaseless encroachment of the sand, but services are regularly held on Summer Sundays and recently a wedding was celebrated there.

The Church of Wales is not the only Christian denomination represented in Llanfair. Still holding services, at either end of the village are the Methodist Capel Bethel and 'Ty Capel' for the Baptists. A mile up the road, beyond an ancient bronze age stone circle, at a windswept crossroads towards the mountains, stands the building known as the 'Bread and Cheese' chapel. Here in the nineteenth century, families would gather on Sundays from far flung farming communities, bringing their food with them to spend the day, inspired by listening to visiting preachers.