Church of St Bridget

Church of St Bridget

A small church built in several phases, consisting of a squat west tower, a low nave with north and south aisles under pitched roofs of equal height, a south porch, and a two-bay chancel only slightly lower than the nave with a small lean-to vestry on its south side. The building is constructed of reddish random rubble with quoins, and the roofs are now covered in small stone slates.

The most distinctive feature is the relatively low and very sturdy tower, characteristic of the Welsh borders type seen also at Rockfield and St Maughans. The tower is square on plan with sheer walls 1.5 metres thick, built of random rubble with dressed quoins, a chamfered band at plinth level, a small moulded band over the ground floor, and plain coping at the top. It has a massive raked buttress in front of the north-west corner. Above rises a low two-stage timber-framed dovecote belfry: the lower stage is close-studded, the upper stage features two tiers of small square louvred openings, and it is topped by a pyramidal roof. The west front has a broad two-centred arched doorway moulded in two orders with a hood mould and heavy oak door, a small moulded lancet above the doorway, a smaller chamfered lancet above that, and a twentieth-century open-work metal clock face at the top. The south side has a similar clock face but no openings. The north side has a very small glazed looplight to the first stage and a chamfered lancet to the second stage.

The south aisle has a large moulded two-centred arched four-light west window with Perpendicular tracery. On its south side is a large but low porch with a wide depressed-arch outer doorway, a small two-light Perpendicular traceried window in each side, inner side benches, a cusped stoup in the north-east corner, and a wide Tudor-arched inner doorway with two orders of moulding and a heavy oak door. East of the porch is one square-headed mullioned window of four cusped lights under a shallow band of simple Perpendicular tracery, and in the east gable a two-centred arched three-light window with cusped Perpendicular tracery.

In the angle with the chancel is a small vestry under a carried-down roof, which has a two-centred arched priest door with chamfered surround and a Tudor-style three-light mullioned window with arched lights and hollow spandrels. The chancel has a rectangular three-light south window similar to that of the south aisle, a three-light east window with simple Y-tracery, and a small two-light north window with cusped tracery.

The north aisle, which has a more steeply pitched roof and raised gable copings, has three windows in its north side like the east window of the chancel, a three-light east window with reticulated tracery, and a large four-light west window with cusped lights and delicate trefoil tracery in the head.

Interior

The nave and aisles feature four-bay aisle arcades of cylindrical columns with moulded annular caps carrying double-chamfered two-centred arches. A double-chamfered chancel arch has steps to the former rood loft to its right. A wide depressed tower arch with two orders of moulding provides access from the west. The nave and south aisles have plastered wagon roofs; the wall plate on the north side of the south aisle is moulded and dated 1661. The north aisle has a coved plastered ceiling.

The chancel features a wide Tudor-arched opening to the south vestry with remains of a two-centred former window to its east, a seventeenth-century balustraded communion rail, a thirteenth-century moulded semi-circular arched piscina in the south-east corner, and a Reading Desk formed from parts of the medieval rood screen with primitive pierced tracery. Traces of wall-painting remain on the east wall.

In the south aisle stands an octagonal font dated 1661. At its east end is a re-located sixteenth or seventeenth-century minstrels' pew with two tiers of eight panels, the upper ones with elaborate carved scrollwork. Between this and the font is a block of three old oak benches on side sills. Remains of wall-painting appear on the east wall.

The north aisle contains a very fine sixteenth-century chest tomb of John Morgan (died 1557), steward of the Duchy of Lancaster and last governor of the Three Castles (Grossmont, Skenfrith and White Castle), and Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire Boroughs in 1553 and 1554. The lid has incised carving of the subject as a bearded man in cap and robe, together with his wife, surrounded by margin lettering reading "HOC TUMULO CONDITA SUNT CORPORA IOHANNIS MORGAN, ARMIGERI, QUI OBIIT 2 DIE SEPTEMBRIS ANNO D'NI 1557, ET ANNE UXORIS EIUS QUE OBIIT 4 DIE IAN. ANNO D'NI 1564 QUORUM ANIMABUS PROPICIETUR DEUS" plus an added inscription "IM obit 75 1587". Each side displays four panels of weepers, with males on the south side and females on the north side, all in bold relief. Each end has an elaborate shield of arms in bold relief, that at the foot bearing the arms of the Cecils, his wife's family. At the west end of this aisle is the Morgan family pew, Jacobean, with two tiers of elaborate carved panels in Renaissance style and a top rail decorated with gadrooning. The present pews and choir stalls date from the 1909 restoration.