The majestic 15th-century roodscreen fills the interior. It bursts with life: the bressumer trails with vines, pomegranates and water-plant issuing from the mouth of a wyvern. The vines symbolise Christ. The pomegranate represents eternal life.
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The thirty-four coving panels are decorated with seventeen different designs, creating a restlessness. The tracery heads hang like lace. The loft carries a line of twenty-five canopied niches. The carving is the work of the Newtown School of Carvers, Montgomeryshire.
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But by 1874 it was in a “dreadfully dilapidated state”. An engraving of that date shows decay and destruction. Soon after architect, David Walker visited. He wrote, “It is to be deplored that this ancient church ... should be permitted to fall into irretrievable ruin..."
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Walker returned and set about rebuilding the dilapidated church. The specification accompanying the faculty application shows just how thorough he was. Some stone and timber was reused. The screen was carefully dismantled and stored until the works were complete.
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Walker commissioned Boultons of Cheltenham to carve replacements of the long-lost figures that had originally filled the niches on the west face of the loft. Christ is in the centre, to his right are Old Testament figures and to his left are the twelve apostles.
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We are so proud to have adopted this little but fiercely important church when it closed in 2018, so that it can continue to inspire awe for centuries to come.
Caught Moss-Handed: how the rare mosses on the roof of St James’s, Llangua enabled the conviction of two criminals in the 1950s.
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In the summer of 1951, a farmer spotted two men climbing on the roof of Llangua church at dusk. Unfortunately, by the time the police arrived, the men had fled the scene.
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After committing further criminals acts in the local area — namely the theft of tools and car batteries — the authorities caught the men, who turned out to be two brothers that had come to Monmouthshire from Cardiff.
Across the centuries, the saintly dedication of a parish church can change — and at Manordeifi in Pembrokeshire, it is thought that the church's dedication has shifted several times throughout its long history.
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A Christian place of worship at Manordeifi is believed to have stood on the site of the present church since the 7th century. The earliest church here was reportedly dedicated to St Llawddog.
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A son of the Prince of Usk and a renowned as a miracle-worker, Llawddog became the focus of a popular local saintly cult. As such, there are thought to be four other churches in the region that were also originally dedicated to him.
Why is the English name for the festival of Christ’s resurrection so different from its name in almost every other language?
1/9 📷 East window of St Cadoc's, Llangattock-Vibon-Avel by Lavers & Barraud (1875).
In English, this most important Christian festival is known as Easter, whereas in most other languages, its name is markedly different: Pâques in French, Pasg in Welsh, and Páscoa in Portuguese.
2/9 📷 East window of St Beuno's, Penmorfa, Gwynedd by an unknown maker (c.1851)
This divergence between English and most other European languages is a hotly debated historical topic, relating to the transition from paganism to Christianity in England during the 6th and 7th centuries.
3/9 📷 East window of All Saints', Ballidon by C.E. Kempe
Caring for over 60 places of worship in England and Wales means that from a few of our churchyards you can see some varied sights.
From 20th century infrastructure to cultural landmarks, the fabric and fate of our churches has been shaped by their localities.
1/6 📷 Sutterby
On the Welsh border, in the remote fields of Herefordshire stands St Peter's, Llancillo. Adjacent to the church is an 8 meter high earthen Motte, which is all the remains of Llancillo Castle. This fortification was originally constructed in the 1090s by Richard Esketot.
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Releasing plumes of steam into the sky, the cooling towers of the Drax Power Station are visible, across the flat Yorkshire’s Ouse Valley, from St Helen's, Barmby on the Marsh. While St Helen’s tower was built in the 1770s, the cooling towers were constructed in the 1970s.
Red and yellow and pink and green ... most children can tell you that rainbows contain seven colours, and many of us use 'ROYGBIV' to remember them. But people haven't always seen rainbows this way.
Rubens' 'The Rainbow Landscape' of 1636 was painted just three decades before major new scientific theories about colour and light emerged. The rainbow lights up surrounding clouds with highlights of lemony yellow and blue.
In 1664, Robert Boyle conducted experiments with prisms, and in the 'artificial rain-bow' he produced, he observed five colours: Red, Yellow, Green, Blew and Purple. ...
The church at Skeffling was built from glacial clutter and recycled masonry in the 1400s. It sits in Holderness. A landscape of mudflats and salt-marshes washed into existence by the North Sea.
Here ‘leaves unnoticed thicken, hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken’.
Those are the words of poet, Philip Larkin. Larkin explored this area after he moved to Hull in 1955 to take up the position of librarian at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. He lived there and held that job for thirty years, until his death in 1985.
Of Hull, he wrote "I never thought about Hull until I was here. Having got here, it suits me in many ways. It is a little on the edge of things, I think even its natives would say that. I rather like being on the edge of things.”