August 2003, we have discovered Gildas' influence as far away as Trun (between Argentan and Vimoutiers), Orne, Normandy, France.
The competition to name the new club house was won by Mike and Thelma, with the announcement made by GGE at their owner's end of season party 24 September 1999.
GILDAS lived from around 516 to around 570 AD
He was a celtic monk and is called the earliest British 'historian'. He is known to have been writing in Wales in 545 about the battle of Badon which was fought in around 493 and is part of the legend of King Arthur.
The History he wrote, called 'On the destruction and Conquest of Britain' covers the period from the Roman invasion until his own times.
For more information use an internet search engine for +Gildas +Badonicus, or obtain a copy of the book by Cardoc of Llancarfan 'Life of St. Gildas' written in circa 1130. Or, if you wish to be more successful try amazon.co.uk for 'The English Conquest : Gildas and Britain in the Fifth Century' by N J Higham.
The following is Copyright www.irelandseye.com:-
Gildas was born c. 500 in the Clyde valley, but as a child left Scotland and studied under both Saint Illtyd and Saint Cadoc in South Wales. According to one legend, Illtyd dwelt on a narrow and squalid island, but through the prayers of Gildas and other disciples the sea withdrew and the enlarged island blossomed with flowers. Gildas is best-known for De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), a powerful criticism of the decadent lives of British kings and clergy, whom he blamed for the successes of Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Gildas also preached in the northern parts of Britain, and seems to have been an influential figure in the Irish Church, teaching for a time at Armagh. He later sailed to Brittany, living as a hermit on the Isle of Houat before being persuaded by local fishermen to found a monastery at Rhuys. He died in Brittany c. 570. To Gildas is attributed a Lorica, possibly composed when plague threatened Brittany, which itemises every part of the body in its prayer for protection. It is said that, if repeated frequently, it will add seven years to your life and that you will not die on a day when it is repeated.