Church of St Stephen and St Tathan (Tatheus)

Church of St Stephen and St Tathan

This Grade II* listed church comprises a nave, separate weeping chancel, south aisle, west tower with an external stair-turret to the south, two-storey north porch, and vestry. One bay of the vestry serves as an organ chamber and forms the south chancel aisle.

The church is constructed mainly in local fine-grained grey and red limestones with Bath stone dressings. Sandstone has been used for most chancel dressings, and the north and west walls of the nave and north wall of the porch are constructed in Bath stone ashlar. The roofs are Welsh slate (some possibly artificial) except probably the tower top, which is lead.

The nave is built of dressed squared stone with a projecting north porch. The porch features a pointed arch doorway with a 2-light window above having cusped trefoil heads in the gable; this once lit the parvice, but the floor has long been removed and the porch is open to the roof. The roof is a late medieval arch-braced collar truss type. The porch is flanked on the right by a 3-light Perpendicular window with cusped heads and on the left by a 3-light arched Perpendicular window with dripmould. The porch has a steeply pitched roof with a coped east gable and apex cross. The south wall of the nave is almost entirely hidden by the south aisle.

The chancel has two trefoil-headed lancets on the east wall with corner buttresses on either side, and a coped gable with apex cross. The north wall has three similar lancets with a corner buttress, all dating from 1851. The south wall is wholly hidden by the chancel aisle except for the corner buttress. The roof is slightly more steeply pitched than the nave and meets it at a slightly lower level.

The south chancel aisle (vestry and organ chamber) comprises three bays divided by buttresses with offsets. Each bay has a plain 2-light window with a Caernarvon head. There is a doorway in the east wall and a chimney through the roof.

The nave south aisle is of four bays divided by buttresses with offsets. Each bay has a 3-light window with cusped heads reaching nearly to the eaves. The roof is low-pitched and meets the nave wall about a metre below the eaves.

The two-stage west tower has tall stages divided by a string course and is flanked by an octagonal stair-turret on the south-east corner. The tower is of roughly coursed rubble with dressed quoins and a slightly battered dressed base. The west door features a 3-centred arch with two rolls and one hollow mould; above it is a 3-light Perpendicular window with dripmould, probably both dating from 1947. A narrow door leads to the stair-turret. String courses mark the half-door height and window cill level. Small windows on the north and south walls light the ringing chamber. The second (bell) stage has a 2-light window on each wall, recessed within the wall surface with decorated heads and fretted infill. A clock on the north face below the bell window commemorates The Reverend W Coleman Williams (Vicar of Caerwent 1910–33) and was added in 1934. Above the bell stage is another string course with a castellated parapet and corner gargoyles. The stair-turret rises to a castellated parapet.

The interior features rough, unplastered stone walls with the chancel whitewashed. The stonework shows great variety. The east windows of the chancel and one north nave window have medieval rere-arches. The chancel arch was probably reconstructed during the 1851 restoration when the north wall of the chancel was rebuilt. The 3-bay nave arcade is medieval, though crudely cut through and faced up from a previously solid wall. The easternmost arch was probably reconstructed when the then-closed arches were reopened with the rebuilding of the south aisle in 1910–12. The stilted segmental arches in the south wall of the chancel are presumed to be 16th-century but were noted as blocked in 1851; they were partly reopened when the south chancel aisle was rebuilt.

The nave roof is a Victorian 16th-century style wagon roof with small ribs. The chancel roof comprises 3 bays; the easternmost is similar to the nave but with bosses, while all are arch-braced collars with two tiers of purlins and common rafters to the other two bays. Both roofs date from the 1851 restoration. The south aisle roof is a plain lean-to type from 1910. The porch has a late medieval arch-braced collar roof. There is a small pointed arch doorway to the parvice stair. An empty statue niche with a trefoil head sits above the main door, which is a pointed arch with five fillets and a dripmould, the latter presumably indicating the porch is an addition.

The furnishings are mostly from the 1851 restoration and include plain benches, a brass lectern in Gothic style, and an oak pulpit dated 1632 on a panelled Victorian stone base, given to the church by Sir Charles Williams of Llangibby. Two fonts are present: the first, by the door and native to this church, is a re-cut Norman tub on a baluster pedestal, probably early 18th-century in its present form. The second font in the south aisle is also Norman in origin but has been introduced from the destroyed church at Dinham, approximately 2 kilometres north of Caerwent; it is a tub type on an unrelated plain base. The organ was installed as a memorial to the First World War in 1928. The glass in the north nave window is also a First World War memorial. A single bell, unseen, is said to be dated 1861. The altar dates from 1965 and was designed by George Pace, including the communion rail, candlesticks, and hanging cross.

The church also contains Roman antiquities, some loose and some built in, including an altar dedicated to Mars dated AD 152. Most are displayed in the porch, with several of fine quality.