Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a Gothic church constructed in snecked pennant sandstone with rock-faced finish, under slate roofs with mixed Bath stone and grey stone dressings. The building comprises a southwest tower, nave, chancel, south aisle, south porch, north aisle, and north vestry. Both the north and south aisles are gabled ranges.

The most prominent feature is the tall southwest tower with pronounced Bath stone quoins. The northwest and southeast angles of the tower have dressed angle buttresses with offsets. The west face, aligned with the west end of the nave, contains a 2-light pointed arched window with grey and pale stone dressings. Above the trefoiled lights is geometrical tracery including a cinquefoil. The upper level features pointed-arched louvre openings with Bath stone dressings on each face, all beneath a continuous hoodmould. These are 2-light with a transom and geometrical tracery above. Battlemented parapets sit on a corbel table, with a dressed cross motif at the centre of each side. An octagonal stair turret at the southwest angle rises from a square base with broach stops and a string course to the top of the base. The turret, faced in dressed stone, rises above the parapets and is topped by a spirelet. Narrow flat-headed stairlights appear at intervals, with lancets to the dressed stone section.

The west end is 2-gabled, with an angle buttress between the nave and north aisle. The nave features a large 4-light west window with 3 large cinquefoils above the trefoil-headed lights. A continuous sill band sits beneath a pointed arched doorway under a hoodmould with decorative bosses, containing double planked doors. The aisle has two 2-light windows—one with a cinquefoil under the arch to the left and one with a trefoil to the right—set above a sill band with decorative end stops. A cusped oval light occupies the gable.

The south side of the south aisle features an advanced gabled porch to the left and pointed arched windows to the centre and right. The porch has dressed quoins and angle buttresses facing east and west. Its moulded pointed arched entrance has pale and grey stone dressings and a hoodmould with end bosses carved as male and female heads. Single trefoiled lights flank each side of the porch. Inside, the roof has closely-spaced intersecting braces and a flagstone floor. A pointed arched doorway with hoodmould contains a planked door. The aisle windows are 2-light with a cinquefoil above to the left and an octafoil to the right, both containing stained glass. A 3-light window at the east end of the south aisle displays cusped intersecting tracery. Dressed quoins mark the southeast angle.

The chancel projects beyond the south aisle and has a 2-light window to the left and a single light to the right. The former contains 3 circular cusped lights below the arch; the latter has a trefoil. A continuous sill band continues around to the east end. A large 5-light east window with highly decorated tracery features a large circle under the arch and further circular cusped lights. Angle buttresses occur at the southeast angle, pointing south, and another stands to the right between the chancel and vestry. The vestry is a lean-to against the north side of the chancel with a trefoiled lancet and hoodmould to the east end. A late 20th-century planked door with chamfered pointed arched head is set in the north side, the masonry possibly reused. A stack with dressed quoins stands behind the east end of the north aisle. The east gable of the north aisle contains a large cusped wheel window with stained glass. The north side of the north aisle is in a slightly different style, with plain quoins and moulded eaves. Three tall 3-light windows towards the centre are separated and flanked by stepped angle buttresses, with the leftmost window taller than the others. Each window has cinquefoiled heads with cusped decorated tracery above. A pointed arched doorway with hoodmould containing a planked door stands to the left. A 3-light window with flat head lies to its left. A shorter blocked window to the right of the central windows has a chamfered arched head, a diagonally-set mullion, and a hoodmould with head end stops. This tracery appears to have been reused from an earlier church.

The interior was not accessible at the time of inspection. The south arcade, designed by Prichard & Seddon, is said to be in late 12th-century French style with foliage capitals. An altar table in the south aisle is dated 1704. The alabaster reredos with green marble shafts was designed by Kempson & Fowler in 1890, featuring figures of Christ and the four Evangelists by H H Armstead. Stained glass windows include an Adoration of the Boy Christ in the east window in Germanic Gothic style by Dixon's, London. This window, the pulpit, and the reredos were gifts of Mrs Llewellyn of Baglan Hall.