The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Historic Environment Record
 

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St. Sannan's Church, Bedwellty

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 01971g
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Bargoed
Unitary authority : Caerphilly
NGR : SO16660030
Site Type (preferred type first) : Medieval Church
Status : listed building II

Summary :
The church at Bedwellty is not mentioned before 1535-6, it has a Celtic dedication and a nearly circular churchyard. It consists of two parallel naves separated by an arcade, a single chancel running across the E end of both, W tower with stair turret, S porch, and vestry. The earliest datable features are 13th century, and there is also work of 15th/16th and 17th centuries. Extensive restorations were carried out in 1857 and 1903-9, the latter responsible for the unuual chancel plan.

Description :
The church at Bedwellty has a Celtic dedication and the churchyard appears on the tithe map (GRO D917.19) as nearly circular; it was extended several times between 1870 and 1909 (GRO DL/AM/P1(6)) and is now irregular in shape, the earlier boundaries having been obliterated. In 1901 Halliday (1901, 150) recorded a lych gate whose entrance had a four-centred head and freestone dressings, but comparing his sketch with the present lych gate indicates that it has been substantially or entirely rebuilt. Although the church is not mentioned before 1535-6 (Brook 1988, 77), there seems little no doubt that it was a pre-Norman foundation. Coxe (1801, 261-2) noted in 1799 that it was `surrounded with vestiges of ancient entrenchments', possibly a reference to an embanked enclosure; the OS card suggests that the `ancient entrenchments' could be a DMV, but that nothing was visible in 1957 except possible quarry pits in the field to the S of the church (PRN 1973g). The base of the churchyard cross survives to the S of the church.

The church consists of two parallel naves separated by an arcade, a single chancel running across the E end both, W tower with projecting stair turret, S porch, and vestry with boiler house beneath constructed against the N wall of the chancel. The tower basement was locked at the time of the survey. The church is constructed from sandstone of the Pennant Series, with no quoins except to the tower and the vestry and on the renewed SE corner of the S aisle. Sandstone was also used for the dressings to the medieval and post-medieval openings, except for those of the porch and the S aisle S wall which, like the openings of the 1903 work, are in Bath stone. Straight joints can be seen at intervals, but it is difficult to build up a structural sequence based on them and they may represent no more than partial renewals of facing. During recent renovation work, two buttresses were removed from against the N wall of the N nave and this wall was partially refaced (ex inf incumbent).

There is no reason to suppose that the two naves were not originally contemporary; it has however been suggested that the S nave has been both lengthened and widened (church records, ex inf incumbent). The suggesting of lengthening to the W was made on the basis of the slightly different treatment of the two W-most arches, and the fact that the pillar between them is the only one to have a marked taper. The suggestion that the church was widened in the 15th century depends on the presence of a stub wall projecting from its E wall continuing the line of the S wall of the chancel. However the present S wall has, like the N wall, an internal batter, which suggests an earlier date, and this stub wall could be a buttress to the chancel wall. The present structure of the church is most unusual in that it gives equal importance to both naves, and they both have an identical chancel arch, apparently of the same date, at their E ends both opening into the chancel. However, when Coxe visited the church he noted that `the inside consists of a nave, a north aisle, and chancel', and the church ground plan on the tithe map (GRO D917.19) is shown with a N aisle which does not extend as far E as the S nave/chancel. The present chancel was constructed in 1903 (GRO DL/AM/P2(81). Possibly the most likely way in which the church would have been arranged in the middle ages is with separate cells at the E end, one serving as the chancel and the other as a chapel or chancel aisle, with a wall between them joining the nave/aisle E wall at the point at which there is now a flat face between the chancel arches. From the windows of the N and S wall of the chancel (the former of which is reset) the arrangement of an E cell at the end of the S range which was noted by Coxe and on the tithe map may date to the 17th century. It is not clear whether there was a medieval tower, since it was not possible to examine the W face of the medieval door between the two in order to determine whether it could have been a W door. None of the rest of the tower appears earlier than the 17th century. The porch is probably of 15th/16th century date.

Work on the church in 1857 (architects Messrs Habershon) involved the restoration of the two windows on the S side of the nave, the two windows in the NW angle and the S door, and internal reorganisation involving new seats and the creation of a vestry/schoolroom in the NW corner of the church; a new and three new windows had already been added to the nave in 1850 (ex inf J Newman). The restoration of 1903-9 was fairly extensive, but generally sympathetic, the architect apparently seeking to return the church to what he believe to be its medieval appearance. Most of the ceilings are modern, but the timbers of the N aisle are exposed and appear to be medieval or early post-medieval. There is an unusual and elaborately carved late medieval chest in the chancel, published by Halliday (1894) as a cope chest, but the incorporation of the emblems of the Passion into the carving suggests that it may actually have been an Easter sepulchre, like the chest at Coity, Glamorgan. Otherwise all the fittings are Victorian or later. Bradney has a more thorough account of the monuments than is generally found in his unfinished Newport volume (Bradney 1993), but not all of the flat slabs were included. Wright noted a ring of six bells of 1895, increased to eight in 1920, and was informed that prior to 1895 there was a bell of 1815, known as the Waterloo bell; by 1923 this had found its way to St Edward's Church, Roath, Cardiff (Wright 1937, 305-6).

References:
Documentary
GRO D917.19, 1839, Tithe map
GRO DL/AM/P1(6), 1870-1909, Addition to churchyard
GRO DL/AM/P2(81), 1903, Faculty for restoration and enlargement of church, rearrange seating, strip plaster and walls of nave and aisles, rebuild present chancel, new vestry, new choir seats, altar, altar rail etc (with history of Bedwellty church 1906 J Brind)

Published
Bradney, J A, 1993, A history of Monmouthshire. Vol V, The Hundred of Newport (ed M Grey), 78-157
Brook, D, 1988, The early Christian church in Gwent, Monmouthshire Antiq 5, 67-84
Coxe, W, 1801, An historical tour in Monmouthshire, 261-2
Evans, J D, 1988, The churchyard yews of Gwent, 104, 110, 152
Halliday, G E, 1894, Carved oak chest in Bedwellty Church, Monmouthshire, Archaeol Cambrensis, 5 ser 9, 324-5
Wright, A, 1937, The church bells of Monmouthshire i, Archaeol Cambrensis, 92, 294-310 (305-6)
Evans 1997 GGAT 51 Historic Churches Project

Grade II* listed medieval church with 13th to 16th century fabric. St. Sannan's well nearby (Procter 2018). Associated with Llantarnam Abbey.

Sources :
Evans, E M , 1997 , Gwent Historic Churches Survey: Churches in the Diocese of Monmouth, Archdeaconry of Newport
Evans, E M , 2003 , Early Medieval Ecclesiastical sites in Southeast Wales: Desk based assessment
Procter, E. , 2018 , The topographical legacy of the medieval monastery: evolving perceptions and realities of monastic landscapes in the southern Welsh Marches
The Handley Partnership , HAAbase built heritage assessment system: Buildings at Risk database
1999/BRADNEY/J/A HISTORY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE/VOL 5/THE HUNDRED OF NEWPORT, CARDIFF & ABERYSTWYTH/p149-57
2000/NEWMAN/J/THE BUILDINGS OF WALES/MONMOUTHSHIRE/p117-18
Evans EM, 2003-04, GGAT 73 Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites Project
EM Evans (1998) GGAT 51/81 Welsh Historic Churches Survey: Glamorgan and Gwent

Events :
E001386 : Early medieval ecclesiastical sites in Southeast Wales desk based assessment (year : 2003)

Related records
Church in Wales Reference No. 4642 https://churchheritagecymru.org.uk/CHR/ChurchDetails.aspx?id=4076
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 000624g
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 302114 https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/302114/details/st-sannans-church-bedwellty

Compiled date : 12-03-2004


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