Church Heritage Record 3884

A medieval church which was almost entirely rebuilt in 1453, the tower is said to have been commissioned by Anne Neville Wife of Richard III.  The tower appears to have links with the style of towers in Somerset and Gloucestershire possibly similar to St Stephen’s Bristol.  The medieval plan was a nave of 5 bays with a 2-bay clerestoried chancel with a separately gabled chapels, aisles and tower.  Restoration took place in 1851 when the work was carried out without the oversight of an architect. The organ loft was enlarged and a carved oak screen placed over the principal entrance, the pulpit and reading desk renewed and placed in the east end High pews were replaced by low open benches of course American oak and a new roof placed over the chancel (a gift from Revd John Montgomery Treherne).  The contractor was Messrs Thomas & Norris of Cardiff and the cost was £1400. The church reopened 23 December 1851. During the next 30 years the wealth availably in Cardiff grew and in 1887 the church was enlarged by the construction of a new chancel and vestry, the low chancel roof was removed and the walls heightened to incorporate a clerestory of 8 Perpendicular windows.  The east window was inserted in the wall of five cinquefoil lights with Perpendicular tracery.  The organ was removed from the gallery and placed in the south aisle of the Chancel – the Alderman’s aisle and the chancel was paved with tiles by W Godwin & Sons of Luggwardine.  The designs for the enlargement of the church were by John Prichard who had died in 1886, the work was supervised by Frederick Kempson of Hereford, the cost was £3000 and the church reopened 16 march 1887.  Kempson & Fowler of Cardiff supervised the next stage of restoration in 1889.  The church was given north and south nave aisles, the galleries on the north and south sides of the church were removed but the lost seats were compensated for by those in the aisle, the south aisle accommodating 400 people.  The roofs were improved and the north and south arched doorways to the tower were renewed.  The cost was £13000, the contractor was Messrs Samuel Shepton of Cardiff and the church reopened 24 September 1889.  The tower was restored in 1897 under the supervision of Charles B Fowler of Cardiff, it being in a dangerous condition, half the embattled parapets were taken down and rebuilt, 25ft of decayed stonework was rebuilt.  Wrought iron railings and gates were installed, by Leathern’s of Cheltenham and carving were provided by William Clarke of Llandaff.  The contractor was George Shepton of Cardiff, the cost was £300 and the church reopened15 December 1897.  In 1975 George Pace erected two concrete vestries, a sensitive design.

Reference

Buildings of Wales – Glamorgan 2001
Historic Wales Listing notice 13674
Church Building and Restoration in Victorian Glamorgan Geoffrey R Orrin 2004
Coflein NPRN 301273

The older parts of the church were built in blue loas with Dundry stone dressings while the Victorian works had refaced Swelldon stone with Bath stone dressings.  The nave is now of 5 bays with a chancel, west tower (with a tower porch under), double aisles to the north and south, a south porch and a shallow north porch.  The tower is of 4 stages with stepped diagonal buttresses, the low ground floor stage is aa porch which is open on three sides, the doorways having multi moulded arches and a rib vault roof.  The tower is crowned by a magnificent open work arcaded and battlements parapet with openwork corner pinnacles and small gargoyles

Reference

Buildings of Wales – Glamorgan 2001
Historic Wales Listing notice 13674
Church Building and Restoration in Victorian Glamorgan Geoffrey R Orrin 2004

The nave has a Perpendicular arcade of lozenge-shaped piers and 2-centred arches, there are lower arcades to the outer aisles.  The chancel arch is high and wide.  The chancel is of 4-bays with a clerestory.  The chancel sits on corbels, these have bene carved with the heads of significant Victorian clerics among whom are Bishop Richard Lewis (Bishop of Llandaff) Revd Charles J Thompson (Vicar), John Keble and Edward Pusey.  The south arcade in the chancel has circular shafts while the northern arcade is similar to that in the nave.  To the north of the chancel is the Herbert chapel with a wooded screen (part C16, Part C17) and an early C17 monument with effigies of a knight and Lawyer and a relief of 4 cherubs.  The reredos in the south chapel is (early C20) by Comper.  The stained glass: ‘Christ with the Virgin Mary and Child, St John the Baptist, St Luke and |St David’, Ninian Comper, 1915: ‘Scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist’, William Miller, 1852; ‘Christ the Good Shepherd with St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist’, Lavers, Barraud & Westlake, c1890; ‘St John the Evangelist with Moses and St Paul’, 1864; ‘Christ and St Mary Magdalene at the |House of Simon the Leper’ W F Dixon, c1890; ‘Christ the Good Shepherd Greeting the Sick and the Lame’, W F Dixon, c1890;’ St Michael with King David and St Cecilia’ Clement Skilbeck, 1900; ‘Christ Blessing Children Brought by their Mothers’, designed by John Pollard Seddon for S Belham & Co, 1890; ‘Apostles and Characters from the Book of Genesis’ firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, to the designs by William Morris, Edward Coley Burne Jones and Ford Maddox Brown, 1869; ‘Christ with the Woman of Samaria’, W F Dixon, 1891; ‘Scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist’, Lavers, Barraud & Westlake, c1880s; ‘Window for the Order of St John of Jerusalem’, Frank Spear; 1970; ‘War Memorial Window’, Christopher Whall, c1917; ‘Masters of the Knights Hospitaller’’, designer James Hogan for Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd, 1945; ‘Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and St John’, Burlison & Grylls, late C19/earlyC20; ‘Heraldic Window’  William Wailes, c1854; ‘Heraldic Window(s), 1884 &1855; ‘Burma Star Window’ 1986.  The church has a ring of 10 bells: John Taylor & Co cast bells, one in 1814,one in 1892 and two in1893; T II Mears cast one bell in 1814 and another in 1825;  William Evans cast one in 1762, William Rudhall cast one in 1770, Thomas Bailey cast one in 1893, A I Rudhall cast one in 1708.

Reference

Buildings of Wales – Glamorgan 2001
Historic Wales Listing notice 13674
Stained Glass in Wales   
Church Building and Restoration in Victorian Glamorgan Geoffrey R Orrin 2004
A National Bell Register - George Dawson's Website - Homestead