Parish Church of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary

This is an aisleless, single-cell church with a south porch and three-stage west tower, probably dating from the 14th century, with significant re-fenestration and enlargement in the 15th century. The building is constructed of coursed liassic limestone rubble with pink sandstone dressings and random blocks within the limestone walls, beneath a natural slate roof.

The east window is a three-light design with cusped heads beneath debased Decorated tracery and a hollow-chamfered hoodmould. Small, staged buttresses flank either side. The north side of the church is unlit.

The tower is broad with an embattled parapet, plinth and three stringcourses. Five angle buttresses with diminishing sandstone quoins define its elevation. A canted stair turret to the northeast corner allows a staged buttress to rise from the wallplate level of the nave. The stair turret features a narrow lancet at ground floor level and square-headed slot lights to the first and second floors. On the north side of the tower, a narrow 14th-century style lancet lights the second stage. Beneath the parapet on each face is a two-light louvred belfry window with a quatrefoil in plate tracery to the head, beneath a simple hoodmould. The west and east faces of the tower have a small oblong light beneath the belfry window. The large west window comprises three cusped lights with Perpendicular tracery to the head, beneath a simple hoodmould. The west doorway is 15th-century, obtusely pointed and chamfered with complexly moulded jambs.

The south side of the nave features a 15th-century gabled porch at the west end. The outer doorway is obtusely pointed with chamfered jambs and diagonal stops. To the west of the porch is a two-light square-headed window with cusped head, glazed spandrels and sunk chamfer. To the east of the porch are two further two-light windows and a blocked obtusely-pointed priests' doorway with plain chamfered dressed stone jambs. At the far east end is a single cusped window with square head and glazed spandrels. All south-side windows are partially restored 15th-century work.

The south porch has a flagged floor with flanking benches and a collared roof. The inner doorway features complexly moulded jambs with thistle stops and a modern door. A 19th-century roof with arched principals carried on plain stone corbels, a simple boarded ceiling and embattled wallplate completes the porch interior.

Inside the church is a modern octagonal font. To the north side of the east window is a fine Baroque alabaster memorial in the form of an oval cartouche set within drapery, beneath a gadrooned funerary urn, with flanking cherubs. Beneath are two cherub heads above a winged skull with a lozenge armorial panel set within scrolled strapwork. The cartouche inscription is no longer legible. To the right of the altar is a 14th-century piscina with cusped head and flamboyant crocketted top. Early 17th-century tomb stones stand to either side of the altar. Three 19th-century funerary plaques to the Salusbury family of Llanwern are located on the north side of the nave. The tower arch is plain, chamfered and of two orders, with a 15th-century plain chamfered doorway at the base of the tower.

In the churchyard to the southwest of the church is part of the shaft of a medieval cross set within a chamfered base, with a fragment of a wheelcross to its left. To the north of the church is a large 20th-century memorial in Portland stone in the shape of a cross, commemorating Lord Rhondda, his wife and daughter. To the southwest is a 20th-century memorial to Robert Pettigrew Finlay and his wife Gertrude Enid Finlay, featuring a crocketted finial shaft with a modern mounted dish taken from the Houses of Parliament, now forming a bird-bath.