Church of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

This is a substantial parish church of medieval origin, constructed in rubble stone with dressings of red and brown sandstone and white limestone tracery, later supplemented by Bath stone tracery in the 19th century. The building is roofed in slate with coped gables. It comprises a nave, transepts, chancel, a north chantry chapel, a southwest porch opposite a northwest porch tower and spire.

The Tower

The northwest tower is tall, massive and plain, rising from a battered base with near full-height clasping buttresses of some eight steps. A three-sided stair tower projects to the southwest. The tower is lit by a north pointed door, small single lancets, a small two-light west window, and large two-light louvred bell-lights with Y-tracery. The parapet is low and plain, though a drawing from the late 17th century shows it as battlemented. Above rises a very tall recessed octagonal stone broach spire with a southwest spirelet over the stair turret. The tower basement contains deep pointed arches on each side and a quadripartite ribbed vault. A winding stair leads to a tall two-storey ringing chamber and then the bell-loft, which opens right up to the top of the spire. The spire is carried on eight pointed arches.

The Nave

The nave is aisleless and broad, roughly buttressed at its rebuilt west end. It has a five-light Perpendicular-style west window dating to around 1885, which replaced an earlier window of around 1480-1520. Two two-light windows from 1873 are positioned on each side, with original buttresses between them. The walls are of rubble stone, formerly plastered, with a fine open wagon roof of seven bays constructed in 1885. Deep splayed segmental-pointed window reveals are a notable feature, and projecting corbels run along the west wall. Segmental-pointed tomb recesses are positioned on each side of the nave.

The south porch is large and gabled with a pointed entry, the jambs being narrower than the arch. It contains a finely moulded segmental-pointed 14th-century door with a pointed niche above and a pointed piscina to the right. Inside is an oak inner porch dating to 1964, probably by A.D.R. Caroe. Collar roof trusses are visible, one dated 1712.

Three mural stairs within the nave suggest the presence of two screens: one stair is in the south wall entered from a pointed doorway, another opposite is entered from the north transept, and a third is in the east wall behind the pulpit, accessed from a pointed doorway. A niche and piscina also exist behind the pulpit. The font dates to 1887 and was designed by Middleton and made by H. Hems. A hexagonal oak pulpit was installed in 1910, designed by W.D. Caroe.

The north doorway to the tower is segmental-pointed and bears an oak door of 1713 inscribed 'Haec est domus dei porta coeli'. The outer north doorway is finely moulded with a hoodmould.

The Transepts

The transepts and chancel arch feature matching big triple rounded shafts to the jambs, rising from large chamfered bases. These appear to be 12th or early 13th century in date, but the segmental-pointed broad arches are early 14th century. The arches to the chancel are exceptionally low and broad.

The south transept, now the Lady Chapel, was the Mansel of Muddlescombe chapel in the 18th century. It has a flat-headed two-light 15th-century west window with renewed tracery, a 19th-century three-light pointed south window, and a blocked pointed east window. The south wall contains two tomb recesses with carved tomb-slabs: one to the left depicts a low-relief face of a lady, and one to the right bears an incised foliate cross. A moulded piscina is positioned to the left. A fine carved male effigy lies on a tomb slab to the right of the altar. The roof features collar trusses, possibly of 1767, as recorded by a plaque to Rev. John Mansel in the northeast corner. An ashlar Gothic screen dates to around 1960, and an altar to 1963.

The north transept, now the organ chamber and vestry, was the Llechdwnni chapel in the 18th century. It contains a pointed north window with original hoodmould and 19th-century timber tracery, and a blocked high west window. The exceptional carved organ-case was created by Thomas Warne in 1762 and was brought from St Mary, Swansea, in 1907.

The Chancel

The chancel has a three-window south side with stepped buttresses and moulded plinths. A round stair tower rises in the angle to the south transept. The first window is a two-light with cusped Y-tracery, dating to the later 19th century. The second and third windows display exceptionally fine Decorated 14th-century tracery in white limestone: one is a two-light with ogee tracery, and the other is a large three-light with radiating mouchettes in the head. A pointed low door is positioned to the left of the second window. Clasping east buttresses support the east wall. The large five-light east window has later 19th-century Y-tracery.

The chancel north side has two blocked original windows with hoods. The north chantry chapel projects between them, originally two-storey but altered as a vestry in 1725 and restored in 1975. It contains timber windows to the east and west. The chancel north also features blocked original windows with hoods, and a pointed north doorway to the chantry with two delicate 14th-century stone lamp brackets. Above is a late 17th-century bolection-moulded plaster panel, and a traceried small roundel light from the chantry is set high. The chantry itself has a squint, piscina, and a fine corbelled mural stair in its south wall, with the jamb of a medieval window visible in the east wall. A 18th-century collar-truss roof covers the space.

The interior has a high chancel roof with eight arch-braced collar trusses, possibly 17th century. Windows feature deep splayed reveals and moulded segmental-pointed rear arches, with moulded stepped sill-courses below. Tomb recesses appear on each side. The tracery of one blocked 14th-century north window is visible as two-light cusped Y-tracery; the other is plastered over.

The south side of the chancel is notable for very fine triple sedilia and piscina, both of early 14th-century date. The sedilia feature octagonal piers threaded through a stone bench with triangular heads and cusped spandrels. The piscina has cusped ogee tracery, a triangular hood, and a small lamp bracket. The east wall contains ashlar arcading of around 1960. A fine 15th-century alabaster carving of the Virgin and Child is positioned on a corbel to the right. Later 20th-century oak stalls and reading desks are present, and the floor is of slate.

Stained Glass and Memorials

The west five-light window dates to 1960 and is by Celtic Studios. The east five-light window and south transept south window are both by C.C. Powell, dating to 1939 and the 1930s respectively.

Memorials are distributed throughout. In the nave north is a monument to Rev. C.W. Bowen (died 1835) by D. Mainwaring. The nave south contains a Baroque memorial to Thomas Pardo from the 1730s. The north transept holds a memorial to T. Evans dated 1858 by Joseph Edwards. In the chancel north are memorials to J. Clement (died 1831) by Tyley and to the daughters of Thomas Kymer, builder of the first canal in Wales (1766-8), dating to around 1830. The chancel south contains a memorial to Catherine Thomas (died 1809) by D. Mainwaring.