Churches

The Church of St. Bartholomew, Llanover, Monmouthshire has its origins in the period following the Norman Conquest. The nave appears the earliest part of the present building, with the chancel dating from the 14th century, the tower from the 16th century and the porch from the 18th century.

The Church of St. Thomas à Becket has its origins in the 13th century. Restored in the 19th century, St Thomas’s is a Grade II* listed building and remains in active use. The medieval churchyard cross was restored as a First World War memorial in 1920 and has its own Grade II* listing. The earliest record of the church dates from 1254.

The Church of St. Illtyd, Mamhilad, Monmouthshire, Wales, is a church with its origins in the 11th century. Renovations took place in the 19th century and again in 1999–2000. It is a Grade II* listed building and the churchyard has one of the oldest recorded Yew Trees in the UK.

A church has been recorded within the location since 1188, but it is considered that most of the surviving fabric dates from the 15th century. The Vestry located to the north of the Chancel was added in 1894 by H.A. Prothero of Cheltenham. The church is regarded as having no dedication, however there is a link to St. Aeddan recorded by Brook in 1988. It is noted that in 1957 foundations for an earlies east end were traced in the churchyard. The archaeological investigation revealed that the width of the below ground remains was of the same width as the rest of the building and would have extended 6 meters further east.

The church was built as a Chapel of Ease to the parish church of Llangybi, and conveyed to the Church in Wales in 1861. It is a fine Victorian church of the Early English style. Designed by architect Sir Matthew Digby-Wyatt in 1848, it comprises a nave and chancel and a western tower of three floors with a single bell. The church is constructed from local sandstone with a pitched natural slate roof and a tower with a crenelated parapet. The interior was refurbished in 2005 including repairs to the plaster of the main body. It was redecorated using breathable lime paint and completely re-wired. A new overhead electric heating system was installed. Much of the work was done by parishioners. Both the church and the churchyard are well cared for on a regular basis.

The first written record of a church at Goetre comes from 1348, though very little of this medieval building remains. Only in the south porch can you see any medieval stonework, though even this seems to have been moved here from another location. The entrance arch to the porch appears to be medieval, and there may be more old stonework in the chancel. The chancel roof may be medieval, replaced on top of rebuilt walls.

The church is thought to have belonged to Usk Priory in the 12th century, but no part of the church can be dated to before 1300. The earliest datable element is the reredos, although the nave and chancel may be contemporary with it. The roof of the nave appears to have been rebuilt in the early 18th century, probably as a result of damage suffered in the Great Storm of 1703. In the 19th century, the church was extensively restored by John Prichard who was responsible for the almost complete rebuilding of the interior. The Monmouthshire author and artist Fred Hando recorded that the two bells in the tower dated from 1635 and 1677.

The Church or St. Peter in Bryngwyn, Monmouthshire has origins back to the 13th century. It is a Grade II* listed building. Gerald of Wales records that a church at Bryngywn was built by Aeddan Gwaethfoed, the Lord of Clytha in 1180. The current building dates mainly from the 15th century. The church was restored in 1871 by John Prichard. Throughout that time, the rector was the Reverend William Crawley, who served from 1834 to 1896, a period of 62 years. Near to the church is a well, also dedicated to St Peter, which was for many years the only water supply for the church and village.

A 19th century church set in a lovely churchyard. Situated approximately midway between Pontypool and Usk. The name Monkswood (Coed-y-Mynach) is said to be derived from the Cistercians of Tintern monastic grange, the remains of which can still be found at Great Estavarny Farm. After the battle of Pwll Melyn (near Usk) many of the Welsh forces were slaughtered here during the Owain Glyndwr rebellion in the early 1440s. Rumble Street (the western boundary of the ward) is thought to have been part of an old Roman Road system and signs of the old cobbles still exist.

The church is constructed of Old Red Sandstone and the style is Perpendicular. The interior contains a Roman grave-slab, described by the architectural historian John Newman as, “splendidly lettered and well-preserved”. It commemorates Julius Julianus, a soldier with the Second Augustan Legion based at Isca Augusta, now Caerleon. Hando recalled that, “For half a millennium the country-folk of Tredunnock have worshipped in their lovely brown church”. St. Andrew’s is a Grade II* listed building, its listing recording it as “a very attractive and well preserved medieval church”.

The church is dedicated to St. Cybi, a 6th-century Cornish saint who is reputed to have founded the church. The present church dates from either the 13th or the 14th century. The church was refurbished in the early 18th century and then restored in the early 20th century by W H Dashwood Caple. The wall paintings are medieval and include The Creed and a depiction of Christ of the Trades. Just outside the churchyard, are the remains of a holy well, also dedicated to St. Cybi.

A 19th century church set in a peaceful part of rural Monmouthshire. Proud of our churchyard, especially the orchids and is home to several protected species.

“The Chapel of Ease, Glascoed, dedicated to St. Michael, was built about 1861 with limestone from a local quarry. During the curacy of Warren Richards, a bell thought to have come from Italy, was found in a scrap-yard at Panteg and installed in the church. Glascoed formed part of the ancient parish of Usk and the Glascoed commons were part of the “waste” of the Lordship of Usk. They are now in the ownership of the Llanbadoc Community Council.”

St. Cadoc’s Church is the parish church of the village of Raglan. The church is situated at a cross-roads in the centre of the village. Built originally by the Clare and Bluet families in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it was rebuilt, and expanded by the Herbert’s of Raglan Castle in the fifteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the church was subject to a major restoration by Thomas Henry Wyatt. Built in the Decorated style, the church is a Grade II* listed building.

The hamlets of Kemeys Commander and Kemeys Inferior formed part of the Monmouthshire estates of the Knights Templar. The Templars administered their holdings through commandery, accounting for the name of the hamlet. A reference to a church on the site dates from the 13th century, but the present building was constructed in the 15th century. The church is built of local limestone in the Perpendicular style. The entrance is through a timber porch and under a bell gable. The building has suffered from subsidence and the bell gable is off-vertical. The church retains its original medieval rood screen and rood beam, one of few churches in southeast Wales that do so.

This church was once called Merthyr Tegfedd, and there were all sorts of legends about the martyrdom of the beautiful St. Tegfedd. The present building goes back to the 12th century, though a lot of it was rebuilt by the Victorians. But there has been a church here for much longer than that. The churchyard is oval, with a hedge and bank around it, a sure sign of a very early church, and it is mentioned in an eighth-century charter in the Book of Llan Daf.

The Church of St. John is in the Perpendicular style and is a Grade I listed building as of 27 November 1953. The church dates from the twelfth century, the date of the nave, although the chancel is fourteenth century and the roofs and tower fifteenth century. It has a well-preserved Norman window. The building is of Old Red Sandstone. The church was restored in 1860-65 by John Prichard and John Pollard Seddo and again by G.E.Halliday in 1900–01. The Arts and Crafts chancel rails are from this date. Memorials to a number of members of the Raglan branch of the Somerset family, whose seat is nearby Cefntilla Court, can be seen in the church.

The church was originally built in the 12th century. It occupies a beautiful position high up overlooking the Usk valley with extensive views from the churchyard. Previously there had been several churches built down in the valley which were flooded out by the river.

Described by the architectural historian, John Newman as “a handsome church” in the Decorated style, it is a Grade I listed building. The church is fourteenth century in origin but nothing remains of this period beyond a single lancet window in the nave. The remainder is of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries”, and of the restoration by E A Landsdowne in 1880–1.

This churches origin was as the church of Usk Priory, a Benedictine nunnery founded by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in the twelfth century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church became the parish church of the town. Extended and restored in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was again restored in 1899–1900. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1974.

The original church may have been founded by Geoffrey Marshall in the 14th century. However, a record exists of an earlier structure, dating from c. 1160. The church was reconstructed in the late 15th or early 16th centuries and restored in the Victorian era by John Prichard. St. David’s remains an active church in the parish.