Church of St Jerome

Church of St Jerome

A parish church of considerable scale, built in purple rubble stone with stone tiled roof to the nave and small slates to the chancel. The building comprises a nave and chancel with a south porch and a distinctive north-east tower. Although the church retains some medieval features, much of the surviving detail dates from the 19th century, with the purple sandstone dressings considerably eroded.

The west end features 19th-century cornerstones, a renewed plate-traceried window of two cusped lights with a roundel set within stone voussoirs, and a chamfered pointed west door beneath a gabled stone hood. A small quatrefoil vent sits in the gable apex, above an eroded corbel or head. The south side of the nave appears largely rebuilt. A pair of cusped lancets stands to the left of the south porch, which has battered side walls, stone tiles, a coped gable, and a broad chamfered slightly pointed entry with stone voussoirs. The porch contains a rafter roof within and stone seats. To the right of the porch is a cusped lancet, followed by a large renewed flat-headed four-light Perpendicular-style window with ogee heads to its lights. A late medieval pointed chamfered south door with barred rounded stops and a 19th-century plank door also features here. The chancel's south side has 19th-century lancets flanking a narrow pointed 19th-century door. At the east end are a small pair of renewed cusped lancets. The north side, to the left of the tower, is windowless but displays a cast-iron rainwater head dated 1869. The nave's north wall has a battered base with possibly medieval stonework, and is remarkably plain, with three small 19th-century cusped lancets and a larger pair to the left.

The tower is a fine two-stage structure in eroded squared stone, standing at the north-east corner. It features a polygonal south-west stair turret, a raised plinth, and embattled parapets. The plinth is battered with a coved moulding; the lower stage displays recessed small ogee-traceried single lights and a small rectangular light higher up beneath a string course. The upper stage has small chamfered flat-headed paired bell-lights with 19th-century pierced ashlar infill. A coved cornice runs beneath the parapets. The stair turret projects to the right on the west side, so the openings are all positioned left of centre. A datestone on the north-east corner reads 'AMDG restored 1918'.

Interior

The interior is plastered and whitewashed, with 19th-century stone reveals and segmental pointed arches with stone voussoirs. The nave has a 19th-century open rafter roof with arch-braced rafters and a brattished wall-plate. Three pink stone steps rise from the nave, with a single marble step positioned beneath the screen, which extends across the entire east end of the nave. A fine chancel arch lies behind, featuring four chamfers on both east and west sides, with the chamfered mouldings dying into chamfered piers and remarkable carved green-man corbels on each side. The chancel has a scissor-rafter 19th-century roof with plastered walls, except on the north side where a broad segmental pointed moulded arch opens into the tower base, the inner mouldings dying into the side piers. Wave mouldings and diagonal stops adorn this arch. A small squint is cut through the right pier. The tower base has segmental-pointed reveals to windows on each side and a 19th-century flat nine-panel timber ceiling. An original stair tower door on the west side features a Tudor arch. One step leads into the tower base, with three bull-nosed steps rising to the sanctuary. The chancel's south window has a 19th-century half-round stone seat in its embrasure and a small pointed piscina to the left.

The screen is of exceptional richness and complexity, much restored by Seddon, who added the colouring. Spanning approximately 19 feet in width, the lower screen itself contains 18 panels, with seven panels on each side of two 2x2-panel doors. The lower panels display linenfold and tracery work, topped by a carved band and traceried open upper panels. A carved and moulded head beam runs above, bearing three bands of ornament, followed by a deep cove (all renewed) containing 3x18 square panels with bosses. An intricately carved massive bressumer, nearly two feet deep, sits beneath the loft, displaying five bands of undercut moulding. The leaf-carved valance beneath continues around the curves of two fine traceried side brackets on corbels, with the tracery restored by Seddon. The loft front features delicate cresting below an 18-panel front with intricate tracery in all panels. The upper beam, approximately one foot four inches deep, is intricately moulded in three bands with carved enrichments above and below. The rear of the screen is considerably plainer, with panels and a coved beam at loft level, and rough plank panelling in an arch pierced with tiny lancets.

An ornate High Victorian font of unusual design features a hexagonal bowl with a chamfered rim bearing raised rosettes. The underside is deeply splayed into a squat marble hexagonal shaft ringed by six ornate columns with highly carved foliate round capitals, marble shafts, and moulded round bases. These bases spring from the sides of a steeply chamfered hexagonal plinth carrying the base of the central shaft. An ornate High Victorian round ashlar pulpit stands on five marble columns encircling a sixth, with moulded caps and bases, mounted on a ten-sided ashlar plinth. Five trefoil-cusped panels open above small curved panels with brattishing, topped by a heavy moulded cornice. Stone steps lead up from the east. An oak lectern with a gabled rotating top and bookrests on two sides also stands in the chancel.

The exceptional 19th-century tiled pavement, designed by Seddon and made by Godwin, features a cross pattern overall with panels of encaustic tiles displaying Gothic designs including the Lamb of God. Other tile panels in the chancel, tower base, and sanctuary depict the seven virtues, cherubim, a kneeling priest, and a triple lamp. Tiles also decorate the fronts of the sanctuary steps. High Victorian wrought iron standards support the communion rail. A pink marble pointed cusped niche adorns the north wall of the chancel. The east window, by Seddon, depicts Gabriel and Mary in browns and blues against a turquoise ground.

Historical Records

A plaque on the south wall, possibly from an 18th-century repair, records 'John Gwin Esq. Robert Wilson Churchwardens 1721 AD'. A brass plaque by the chancel arch commemorates Rev. William Price, who died in 1890 and 'restored both churches, built the school and renovated the screen'. A plaque on the chancel's south side commemorates Richard Creed, who died in 1690. He was the son-in-law of the noted Puritan minister and vicar of Llangwm, Rev. Walter Cradoc, secretary to Admirals Blake and Montagu and later schoolmaster at Llangwm.