Church of Saint Basil

This parish church is built of rubble stone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs, and coped gables. The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, south aisle with south porch and south transept (or organ chamber), and a northeast mausoleum chapel.

Exterior

The west tower is large and of three stages, dating from the 15th century. It has a plinth, three moulded string courses, embattled parapets, and large cornerstones. The bell stage features small flat-headed two-light ashlar openings with stone voussoirs. The middle stage has small rectangular or square lights—two on the west side and two on the south. The lowest stage contains a three-light 15th-century flat-headed window with cusped lights and a relieving arch, with the plinth moulding carried over the west door as a hoodmould. The west door is 15th century, segmental-arched in a moulded surround, fitted with 19th-century double doors. The south side bell-opening is masked by a 19th-century clock.

The south aisle has a battered base to its wall (all other walls are straight), with old cornerstones to the southwest, some in red sandstone. At the west end is a 19th-century three-light window with reticulated ogee tracery, a hoodmould, and stone voussoirs—typical of all the replaced windows from 1878–79. The south side features a 19th-century south porch, three similar south windows, a south transept with another similar window, and a similar east window. The stonework at the east end is continuous with the nave's east end.

The large south porch, built in 1878–79, is of squared rockfaced stone with clasping buttresses and a large, heavily moulded and shafted arch with a hoodmould and carved head stops. There are two small pointed windows on each side. The inner door sits within a large 1878–79 moulded pointed arch over a cambered-headed doorway with a roll-moulded head and double ledged doors. On each side are fine, eroded medieval carved angel stops from a lost hoodmould, and on the inner side of the outer doorway are two further medieval carved stops.

The south transept, dating from 1902–03, has a tall gable, purple stone quoins, and a reset 1878–79 window above a pointed 19th-century door with a hood and purple stone voussoirs.

The chancel has a lower roof. A small later 19th-century addition sits in the angle to the south aisle's east end, with a canted hipped lean-to roof, a window to the south, and a door in the canted southeast wall. The chancel's south side features a 16th-century flat-headed four-light window with a hoodmould, the lights having segmental pointed heads. Under the sill is a fine plaque to Hugh Jones of Troderhiwrgelli, Radnorshire, bailiff to the Tredegar estate, who died in 1719. The east end has 19th-century quoins and gable coping dated 1903, a roundel in the apex, and an east 15th-century four-light Perpendicular-style window with panel tracery and a hoodmould.

The northeast chapel is an addition, with a straight joint to the chancel's east end; all its details date from 1916. The east side has a flat-headed three-light window set high, with no coping to the gable, a diagonal northeast gabled buttress, a north single-light window, another gabled buttress, a three-light window, and a transeptal gable (attached to the nave wall) with a stepped three-light window set high and a carved boss in the gable. An earlier 20th-century porch was added on the west side, with a flat roof and parapet, a door to the north, a single light, and a basement entry to the west.

The nave's north wall has three windows similar to those on the south aisle.

Interior

The tower has a 19th-century boarded ceiling and a 15th-century Tudor-arched narrow door to the winding stair. A deep segmental arch with thin stone voussoirs spans the west door. The tower arch also has thin voussoirs forming a pointed arch, with moulded imposts on stone side piers. A late 19th-century timber screen with attractive leaded glazing fills Gothic panels.

The nave and aisle have segmental-arched panelled ceilings with painted moulded ribs and plaster panels. The south aisle roof is much narrower; both may date from 1902–03. The nave roof consists of 14 by 6 panels, the aisle roof of 14 by 4 panels, both with coved cornices and shields under the main ribs. A five-bay 1878–79 ashlar arcade features alternate round and octagonal piers and two-chamfer arches. The nave aisle is paved with grave slabs. A segmental arch was cut through the nave's north wall in 1916 into the antechapel of the northeast chapel. The medieval chancel arch, dating from the 14th or early 15th century, has a two-chamfer pointed arch dying into plain sides.

The chancel has an ornate two-bay north arcade to the northeast chapel, from 1916, with ashlar pointed two-chamfer arches dying into piers and three column shafts, ornate carved spandrels, and cresting. The roof, dating from 1902–03, has three trusses with cambered tie-beams, posts with cusping above rising to collars, and Tudor-arched bracing to the tie-beams from corbels. The south wall has been straightened to carry the roof, with a jetty carried on moulded broad stone corbels. The north wall has a lancet (now opening into the northeast chapel) in a deep splayed reveal. The large 15th-century east window has stone voussoirs to a segmental-pointed reveal. An ashlar roundel is set high in the gable above. The south wall has a segmental-pointed piscina, much renewed or 19th century. The 15th-century south window has an oak lintel.

The northeast chapel of 1916 has a segmental oak-vault to the antechapel with blind tracery, a pointed stone arch into the chapel matching the two arches from chapel to chancel. The chapel has a fine roof of collar trusses with cambered collars, deep arched braces, and decorative brattishing to the collars and parallel purlins.

Fittings

The church contains a 19th-century ashlar octagonal font and 19th-century pine pews. An oak Gothic pulpit, dating from after 1935, has ornate traceried panels and a vine-trail cornice; there is a similar reading desk. The chancel has early 20th-century dado panelling and a rail with four Gothic pierced uprights. An oak Gothic reredos of 1939 features an ornate vine-trail surround and cresting, a canopied blank centre, and five traceried panels on each side—the centre left with a wheat motif, the centre right with vine, and the outermost posts with angels. Matching panelling sits on each side.

The northeast chapel has carved oak stalls on the antechapel's west wall in two rows, apparently 19th century. Panelled dado in the main chapel is more ornate in the sanctuary. A very ornate reredos of 1916 on the chapel's east wall is in ashlar, Gothic in style, with much cresting and statues of Saints George and David flanking the centre Adoration of the Magi.

Fine hanging brass candelabra include two large ones in the nave with two tiers of branches, from 1822, said to come from Saint Woolos, Newport. Smaller later chandeliers are also in the nave, south aisle, and northeast antechapel. Painted hatchments of the early 19th century include two on the nave's north wall and four in the south aisle. A large organ in the south aisle transept has a pine case with painted pipes, said to date from 1902–03.

Stained Glass

In the nave, the first north window depicts Saints George, Michael, and David, circa 1920, commemorating Lieutenant Colonel C. Wilkie and the 17th Battalion Welch Regiment (with the names of the fallen in three brass plaques around), attributed to Martin Travers. The second north window shows Faith, Hope, and Charity in green aesthetic movement colours, 1904 by A. Savell & Co, to Captain S. Homfray (died 1894) and J. Hearsey (died 1901). Patterned glass fills the third north window and the first and third south aisle windows.

The chancel's east window shows the Four Evangelists, circa 1860 by Cox & Son, to Reverend T. Leyson (died 1838), in bright colours, with the top lights containing 12 reused German 17th–18th-century panels. The chancel's south side has two similar inset panels.

The northeast chapel antechapel has an earlier 20th-century high north window with the Morgan arms flanked by the Virgin and a female saint. The chapel has a north three-light window circa 1990 and a single light from 1977, both by Alan Younger. The east window depicts Saints David, Basil, and Dubricius, 1917, by Kempe & Co.

The south aisle's east window, showing the Angel at the tomb, is by G. Maile Studios, to J. Whitmore (died 1964). The second window depicts Saints Luke, Matthew, and John, 1910 by Kempe & Co, and the west window is by Alan Younger, 1988.

Memorials

The nave's north wall has a brass plaque to Lieutenant A. Justice, who died at Pretoria in 1880, with a design of two soldiers, and a marble plaque to Reverend J. Yorath (died 1852) by Cade of Bristol. A brass commemorates Samuel Homfray of Tredegar Ironworks (died 1882). Three matching neo-Grec marble memorials honour the Homfray family: the earliest to Samuel (died 1822) by H. Wood of Bristol, with inscriptions also to Watkin (died 1837) and Jane (died 1846); the second to Charlotte (died 1852) by A.H. James of Newport; and the third to Lorenzo (died 1903). On the left pier of the arch to the northeast chapel is a plaque to Reverend B. Williams (died 1858) by T. Williams of Newport. To the left of the chancel arch is an ashlar Gothic memorial to Lord Tredegar (died 1875) with a crocketted gable; another similar memorial within the northeast antechapel commemorates Lady Rosamund Style, died 1883. On the right of the chancel arch is a marble Gothic plaque to Octavia Somerton (died 1869) by Tyley of Bristol. On the inner chancel arch piers are plaques to the Phillips family, 1822–58, and Reverend W. Phillips (died 1875), by J. Thomas of Newport.

The chancel has marble plaques to Ellen Leyson (died 1867), Reverend T. Leyson (died 1838), C.R. Morgan M.P. (died 1854) in neo-Grec style, Caroline Leyson (died 1851), and Ellen Leyson (died 1839). The south aisle has a plaque to R.E. White, drowned in Russia in 1887, with a low relief of a ship, by A.H. James of Newport.

The northeast Morgan chapel has a large north wall memorial to Viscount Tredegar (died 1934). The west wall features a very fine neo-Grec memorial with a draped urn and seven mourning children, to Lady Maria Morgan, 1808, by Sir Richard Westmacott (1775–1856). There are also two brasses to C.O.S. Morgan F.R.S., died 1888, and A.J. and G.L. Morgan (died 1900 and 1907). The east wall has a marble neo-Jacobean large memorial with some 20 painted shields and strapwork cresting to Sir Charles Morgan (died 1846), by J. Evan Thomas (1810–73).

The northeast chapel has a very fine north wall memorial by Coade & Sealy, in Coade's patent stone, to Sir Charles Morgan (died 1806), with a sarcophagus and a reclining female figure over a base with upturned torches on the outer piers. The south wall has a monument to Gwyneth Morgan (died 1924) by Cecily Thomas, 1936, with a poem by Evan Morgan. (Thomas also designed a memorial to Gwyneth Morgan in the churchyard outside the east end of the chapel.)