A FIGHT over the future of a more than 1,000-year-old monument near Llangollen has seen calls for it to be moved to a museum.

Eliseg’s Pillar, near Valle Crucis Abbey, dates back to the first half of the 9th century and is located on a Bronze Age burial cairn.

The monument was erected by Cyngen ap Cadell, king of Powys, in honour of his great-grandfather Elisedd ap Gwylog who repelled the Anglo-Saxons from North Wales.

Another inscription on the pillar includes the names of successive rulers of the kingdom of Powys during the 8th and 9th centuries.

However, actor Karl-James Langford, from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, launched a Senedd petition to have the statue moved to a museum.

In a series of videos on YouTube and TikTok, Mr Langford hit out at the pillar’s condition, adding that it should be moved to preserve the details that are left.

He said: “Pillar of Eliseg, carved stone from the 850s AD, should be moved to a Amgueddfa Cymru to protect it.

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“The Eliseg Pillar (near Valle Crucis, Llangollen) carved lettering is rapidly eroding away.

“It is the most important early medieval stone in Cymru.

“Yet, it is out in the open, weather eroding and needs to be placed into a museum before the final details are lost for ever.

“A copy should be erected at the location where it is currently housed in a field.”

Mr Langford’s views on the issue have been compiled into a live show he will host at The Welfare arts centre in Ystradgynlais, Swansea next year.

His ‘Exposing History’ show aims to demonstrate how the people of Llangollen are allowing the pillar’s more than 1,000 years of history to be “destroyed”.

The site is protected by Cadw, the Welsh Government-affiliated heritage body, who did say the monument was now “weathered”.

Mr Langford’s petition had gathered just 54 signatures by its closing date of April 16, and was not progressed.