Caldey Priory, including church and monastery remains

Caldey Priory comprises a church and monastic buildings arranged around a small courtyard, constructed of rubble stone with slate roofs. The church occupies the south side, consisting of a nave, chancel and west tower topped with a stone spike spire. The domestic buildings extend northwards, with a gatehouse on the west side and a two-storey east range featuring a semi-fortified tower at the northeast corner.

The Tower and Church Exterior

The west tower is of the Pembrokeshire square type, standing 9 metres high. Unusually, it splays outward at ground floor level on the north and south sides, with sloping haunches and battered bases. The west door is broad with a segmental pointed arch, stone voussoirs, and recessed double boarded doors. At first floor level is a flush 14th-century two-light window with renewed tracery, featuring cusped heads to narrow lights and a small quatrefoil. A single small loop sits at two-thirds height. The tower is crowned with corbels supporting a deep embattled parapet with chamfered battlements, and a recessed stone spire approximately 5.4 metres high that leans about 0.98 centimetres to the west.

The south side of the nave has a stair projection to the left with battered base, followed by two tiny circa 1900 two-light windows under the eaves. Below these are two blocked rectangular openings with red brick heads, and to the right a large plain rectangular opening (a former door) with recessed glazing. The chancel is lower than the nave, windowless to the south, with a slate roof partly lean-to against the gable end of the east range, which is built on top of the chancel vault. The east gable has a big coped finish, considerably higher than the roof, with 19th-century coping, finial and hoodmould to a large pointed east window, presumably dating from around 1900. The north side of the nave, facing the courtyard, has two similar circa 1900 windows under the eaves and a boarded door to the left, with a blocked earlier 19th-century window with brick head at the centre.

The Gatehouse Range

The gatehouse range to the northwest has a slate close-eaved roof, except at the right end where a short rubble parapet and masonry break marks the northwest corner of the church. A large first-floor corbelled chimney with renewed circular shaft stands left of centre. To the left of the chimney, under the eaves, is a 19th-century square loft opening. The ground floor has two very small openings to the left and a segmental-pointed entry to the right with stone voussoirs, set within a wider blocked entry also with stone voussoirs. The masonry of the ground floor continues to the left as the side wall of a demolished building.

The east front facing the courtyard has a rough segmental-pointed arch to the left (leading to a through-passage but larger than the arch on the west side) with stone voussoirs. The walling here is recessed below ten close-set rough corbels, with the recess stopped at the line of the right jamb of the archway. Above are dove-holes arranged in three tiers, some blocked and some retaining their shelves, disposed each side of a small stone-traceried two-light 16th-century or late medieval window with cusped heads, traces of hoodmould and missing mullion. The facade to the right of the entry has a low arch to an undercroft with rough stone voussoirs, and a small rectangular recess with slate head set low to the left, with another rectangular opening at mid-height to the right. The first floor has dove-holes in four irregular rows, a 19th-century casement pair under the eaves to the left (roughly central to the whole range) and a square opening set slightly lower to the right. The north end wall has stone outside steps to a loft door, with a single stone lancet to the left.

The East Range

The east range has a prominent rendered south gable rising from the chancel roof of the church, dated to the 16th century, with a small first-floor window. The gable coping is stepped and chamfered like the battlements of the tower, with a small square centre stack. The slate roof has a large roughcast ridge stack towards the right with stepped north side and projecting capping. The west front facing the courtyard has a tiny ashlar rectangular light at first floor just right of the chimney. The masonry at ground floor level is considerably disturbed. The centre and left has a projection for a mural stair, the centre full-height with two small stair lights at different levels and a square opening splayed back to a narrow loop at ground floor. The left projected walling has a pointed arched doorway with stone voussoirs set in a broad blocked arch, but the wall above is set back to the original plane with a modern opening to the first floor. The rear east elevation is much obscured by ivy. The wall and roof are set back at upper level each side of a projection (shown as a chimney gable by Colt Hoare), with two square-headed openings to the left and one to the right. The ground floor has a 19th-century opening with red brick head to the right, and another possibly original, much damaged opening to the left.

The Prior's Tower

The Prior's Tower has a slate roof behind a corbelled embattled parapet on the north and east with loops in the battlements. The west side facing the courtyard has corbels but no battlements; this side may have adjoined a lost north block. The stonework is patched, showing the line of a tall opening in the centre. There are two ground floor openings with timber lintels. The north end has two small 19th-century casement pairs well-recessed under brick heads at ground level, and at first floor a tall 19th-century opening with timber lintel. The east side has a projecting turret to the right with similar battlements, a small pointed stone window at the centre of the first floor, and a 19th-century door to the ground floor with timber lintel.

A rear garden wall, possibly 19th-century and built of rubble stone, is attached to the priory. It has doorways in both north and south walls, the north doorway being pointed.

Church Interior

The church has exposed stone walls. There is a marked difference between the nave (or monks' choir) and the chancel, and according to Bushell there was no evidence for any opening between them. The chancel has a pointed rubble stone barrel vault partly covering the top of the splayed reveal of the east window, which retains its medieval hoodmould and stops. On the south wall is a cusped pointed 13th-century piscina with an adjoining medieval splayed lamp recess containing a flue in the wall. A plank door in the north wall leads through a rendered pointed chancel arch cut through around 1900. The chancel floor is cobbled.

The nave has a thin five-bay collar-truss roof with wishbone struts. The north wall leans inward at the top as if intended for a vault, but this is thought to be the wall that was rebuilt when the choir was narrowed. There is a door at the right end of the north wall. A tiny light in the southeast angle may be old, but the other windows date from around 1900. The early 20th-century plain pine fittings include a lightweight west gallery with slats to the front rail, stalls on each side with high boarded backs, bench seats and front kneelers, the stalls returned under the gallery, and slatted gates in the chancel arch. The nave floor is cobbled at the east and west ends. The lobby under the gallery has a south wall with a medieval mural stair to the tower first floor, accessed through a narrow door with shouldered head. The north wall has a deep recess. The tower has a stone vault to the ground floor and a segmental-pointed recess on the south wall. The east door into the nave is pointed with stone voussoirs. The floor is cobbled. The first floor has deep splayed reveals to the west window and stone voussoirs to the east opening into the nave. There are two wooden floors above.

Church Furnishings and Fittings

On the south wall of the nave is the Caldey Stone, bearing an Ogham inscription of 5th to 6th-century date and a later Latin inscription and cross on the back and on each edge, possibly 9th-century. The east window has patterned glass of around 1900 in blue and yellow with a monogrammed oval cross in the centre. The south window contains stained glass of Saint Illtyd by Dom Bede Bailey, dating from around 1925. A brass plaque in the tower commemorates Reverend W D Bushell (1838-1917). The chancel has a crude incised cement decorated dado.

West Range Interior

The west range has a stone vault to the through passage, the vault differing at the west end. The north door has a timber lintel, and the south door has a pointed arch with stone voussoirs. The room to the north has a timber 19th-century roof, corbels for a lower ceiling on the south and west walls, and a blocked door in the north end wall. The first-floor room has a 19th-century pine roof and incised cement dado as in the chancel. A small lancet light pierces the south gable end.

East Range Interior

The east range contains a vaulted kitchen with an eroded fireplace at the south end. Two pointed doorways on the west wall give access to the mural stair and to the refectory site. A doorway at the north end leads into the Prior's Tower. At the south end, a square-headed doorway leads into a small room, formerly a vaulted through passage, with the west end blocked and an inserted chimney and bread oven. An inserted south door opens into the chancel. The doorway at the head of the mural stair is of 16th-century red sandstone with a Tudor arch. The east wall fireplace has moulded jambs, possibly reused window jambs.

Prior's Tower Interior

The Prior's Tower has a vaulted basement measuring approximately 4.6 metres by 4.6 metres, divided into two by a later wall, and an upper chamber. There is no staircase now, but there was probably one at the southwest corner. The loopholed northeast turret was a garderobe. The roof, which was not seen during inspection, may be 15th-century but reset higher than its original position. It has two king-post tie-beam trusses with concave wishbone struts and longitudinal braces.