Parish Church of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary

This is a large Norman parish church built of rubble and ashlar masonry with tooled surfaces, roofed in slate. The building comprises a western tower, nave, north and south transepts, chancel, and a northeast vestry.

The Norman west front is particularly fine. At its centre is a plain round-arched roll-moulded doorway surrounded by five orders of moulding: four are variants of zigzag patterns, with larger motifs on the outer and inner bands and a plain roll-moulding in the centre band. The doorway has joined capitals with scallop moulding and half-round colonnettes. On both sides, forming a continuous stepped arcade, are small blind shallow niches with one order of zigzag moulding on the narrow round arches. At triforium level is a similar three-part composition: three round-headed windows, the centre one with three orders of zigzag moulding above a narrow impost and plain arches to the sides, all beneath a decorative hoodmould.

Close to the sides are stepped buttresses rising to a string course that marks the start of the 18th-century tower. This is two storeys tall and embattled, with notably classical detailing to the west front including pediments to the windows and plinths and capitals to the side pilasters. Tall single louvred lights serve the belfry, with two lights to the tower chamber at the west separated by a clock. All storeys are separated by string courses, and the tower stair turret is positioned at the northeast. The north nave has a coped embattled parapet in front of the tower with stepped buttresses at the northwest corner.

The north nave comprises four bays separated by pilasters, with plain round arches to the clerestory and smaller arches of two orders to the triforium. Below a string course, the wide former aisle arches have been blocked and filled with later round-headed windows. An entrance occupies the northwest arch with a lean-to bay adjacent.

The north transept, partly of 19th-century masonry built in part Norman style, is gabled with an oculus in the apex. Three round-headed windows with hoodmoulds and face stops run along its length, separated by full-height pilasters from plinth to corbel table. A central doorway in a coarse Norman style features zigzag ornament. Similar long side windows appear on the sides. A hipped tiled-roofed vestry extension at the northwest has Norman-style windows.

The chancel has two three-light windows on its north side with cusped tracery and heavy hoodmoulds. Roll-moulded string courses appear below the parapet and above the windows, incorporating roundels. The east end has a large five-light window with cusped Geometric tracery, and corner buttresses with spirelets enriched by gabled columns. The south side of the chancel is similar to the north, but instead of a vestry, there is a single-storey embattled wing to the south transept.

The south transept has long side windows similar to those on the north and, at its southeast corner, a heavily moulded Gothic Revival doorway. The south face has two long three-light windows with cusped tracery separated by a deep stepped buttress, with shallow buttresses beneath each window and end pilasters topped by spirelets enriched with canopywork.

The south nave is similar to the north, comprising four bays with a projecting bay at its east end containing a round-arched window, and a pitched roof behind the parapet.

Interior

The interior of the nave is mostly rendered with exposed dressings, though larger areas of unrendered masonry appear in the upper nave, while the east end is finished in ashlar. A west narthex or lobby beneath the tower has Norman arches, with the taller arch serving the west doorway and a very tall tower arch opening to the nave.

The late medieval font is a shallow bowl with quatrefoil mouldings, mounted on a tall stem upon a battered plinth with supporting slender outer mouldings. A 19th-century tall carved wooden font cover is enriched with quatrefoils and crockets. Benefaction boards are displayed in this area. A ringing chamber in the gallery above contains some fine wall monuments.

The four-bay Norman nave has plain round arches to the aisles with set-back inner arches and plain imposts without capitals. On the north side are plain triforium arches and larger clerestory arches. On the south side are paired triforium arches with dividing colonnettes and single plain clerestory lights.

In the northwest chapel is the Worcester tomb commemorating Henry, second Earl of Worcester, Lord Herbert of Chepstow, Raglan and Gower, who died in 1549, and his second wife Elizabeth. This freestanding monument features two painted effigies within two round-headed arches to the long sides, supported by half-round columns with a plinth and cartouche panels below and an entablature above bearing a rosette frieze with moulded pyramidal end finials and a central heraldic cartouche. Adjacent is the Royal Arms of 1841 on canvas.

A flat boarded wooden ceiling, partly in coffered panels, covers the nave. Stained glass of the 1870s by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake appears in the southeast nave, while southwest glass dates to circa 1896 by Samuel Evans. Most non-figurative glass is of grisaille type. The southeast nave arch opens to the south transept chapel, which contains a small Norman bowl font. The nave floor is wooden with red-tiled aisles and is furnished with chairs.

The crossing has footings of huge Norman piers at the north. The rebuilt transepts feature tall quatripartite columns, with two deep columns to the south creating a double transept arcade. These have pointed arches and stiff-leaf capitals, with full-height arches to the left forming a recess with wall monuments. The organ sits to the right within a notable Gothic case. Vaulted wooden ceilings, supported by piers and corbels, cover the transepts, with the section over the nave fan-vaulted. A recess in Norman masonry appears between the south nave and south transept.

In the south transept is a fine Jacobean monument to Thomas Shipman, Richard Cleyton, and Margaret, who was married to both and died in 1627. This comprises a group of three figures in a square-headed recess, with the woman recumbent and the two men kneeling, accompanied by small-scale children below—two male and ten female. The recess is framed by columns with a heraldic cartouche above flanked by pyramidal finials, and has a marbled finish that has been repainted. A number of other high-quality wall monuments date to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, some by Bristol monumental craftsmen. An 18th-century clock mechanism was made by William Meredith, a Chepstow clock-maker, between 1775 and 1791. A stone pulpit in Geometric style was created by Coates Carter in 1891. The north transept contains a chapel with panelling commemorating World War dead.

The chancel, reached by five steps up, has full-height arches to the left forming a recess with wall monuments, while to the right is the organ with a notable Gothic case of circa 1800. Edwardian choir stalls with lamps and an encaustic tiled floor occupy this space. A further five steps lead up to the sanctuary, which has two sanctuary windows on each side.

A very long polychrome altar and large polychrome reredos dating to 1922 by Coates Carter occupy the east end, dedicated to the women of Newport and Gwent for their service in the Great War, with stained glass behind. The north wall contains a reset medieval aumbry with a trefoil-headed niche, pedimented moulding and large face stops. The east window dates to 1896 and is by Lavers and Westlake.