THE village of Llangwm travelled back in time to the Middle Ages at the weekend for a three-day celebration of its Flemish roots.

With a 14th century wedding re-enactment, five-course banquet, folk play and historical walk, Llangwm’s Big Medieval Weekend has been hailed a success by organisers.

“A lot of effort went into it and it went really well,” said a spokesperson.

“People threw themselves into the spirit of it.”

Taking place from Saturday to Monday, the highlight was the re-enactment of a 1315 wedding which had been in the planning stage for over a year.

On the eve of the event, however, organisers found they had a crisis on their hands when the girl playing the part of the bride had to pull out.

Organiser Liz Rawlings was left with the problem of finding not just another bride, but a bride who fitted the ornate outfit, plus someone who wasn’t too big to ride a horse as part of a wedding procession.

“Eventually a composer and music teacher who lives locally, Sam Howley, suggested one of his pupils, Mair Tyrie, who was playing the leading part in a production of Beauty and the Beast at her school.”

Fortunately 15-year-old Mair from Pembroke Dock, and her mum Wendy, agreed.

The bride had to process through the village on horseback to meet her groom at the church, followed by wedding guests also in medieval costume. And Mair carried it off to perfection.

The groom was Simon Roach, 32, and a grandson of a local man, Norman Roach, who’d been shown by DNA testing to be a direct descendant of Llangwm’s Flemish founders.

Mair’s mum Wendy had a few doubts at the beginning: “We thought it a bit strange - Mair is 15 and her groom is 32 – but then a friend pointed out that was how it was in those days.”

The wedding, which was performed in St Jerome’s church by Llangwm’s rector, the Rev Marcus Zipperlen, was a re-enactment of an actual wedding that took place in 1315 in the same church between two distant cousins, Sir David de la Roche and Lady Johanna, both descendants of the original family.

The real-life wedding is one of many events depicted in The Talking Tapestry of Langum, which tells Llangwm’s story and is now on display and open to visitors in a side chapel of St Jerome’s church.

Following the success of the weekend, organisers are considering making it an annual event.