Historic churches and other Christian sites in South Wales

  • All that is now visible of Capel Aeddan, Clytha (Monmouthshire) is a few stones poking through the turf.
    All that is now visible of Capel Aeddan, Clytha (Monmouthshire) is a few stones poking through the turf. These include the remains of window tracery probably dating to the late 15th or early 16th century.
  • Capel Mair, also known as 'yr Hen Eglwys' and 'Cryke Chapel' stands on the hillside overlooking Margam Abbey just outside Port Talbot.
    Capel Mair, also known as 'yr Hen Eglwys' and 'Cryke Chapel' stands on the hillside overlooking Margam Abbey just outside Port Talbot. Although the surviving architectural remains suggest that it was last rebuilt in the late 15th century, it stands within a curvilinear enclosure which may date back to pre-Norman times.
  • St Andrews Minor (Vale of Glamorgan) survived as a parish in its own right into the 19th century, though the Religious Census of 1851 records that it only had 16 inhabitants
    St Andrews Minor (Vale of Glamorgan) survived as a parish in its own right into the 19th century, though the Religious Census of 1851 records that it only had 16 inhabitants and Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, published in 1848 says the rectory was a sinecure, so the church had obviously gone out of use before that time. The remains of the church are relatively well preserved and show that it was very small – only 7.5m long.
  • The medieval St Peter's chapel at Caswell (Swansea) stand next to St Peter's Well.
    The medieval St Peter's chapel at Caswell (Swansea) stand next to St Peter's Well. The site was excavated in 1895, and partly restored.
  • The old parish church of Llandeilo Talybont, dedicated to St Teilo, has been moved to the Welsh History Museum at St Fagans
    The old parish church of Llandeilo Talybont, dedicated to St Teilo, has been moved to the Welsh History Museum at St Fagans but its disused churchyard still stands on the banks of the River Loughor. This site is cut off when the tide is very high, so in the middle of the 19th century a new parish church was built at Pontardulais (Swansea). The old church gradually fell completely out of use – the last service there was held in the 1970s.
  • eterston-super-montem was a chapel-of-ease in Coychurch parish, but went out of use at the end of 18th or beginning of the 19th century.
    Peterston-super-montem was a chapel-of-ease in Coychurch parish, but went out of use at the end of 18th or beginning of the 19th century. It was replaced in 1833 by a new chapel, situated more conveniently 1.5km away in the valley at Brynna (Rhondda Cynon Taff). The entry for this chapelry in the Religious Census of 1851 tells us that the old church 'was taken down' but a considerable amount of its structure still survives.

Lost Medieval Churches and Graveyards

Medieval churches still in use do not represent a full picture of what would have existed in the Middle Ages. The ecclesiastical landscape was not static, and churches and chapels came and went according to circumstance.

Sometimes it is the historic parish church which has been lost because the villages in which it stood had been completely abandoned. This happened at places like Howick near Chepstow and St Andrews Minor in the western half of the Vale of Glamorgan. It is often put down to the Black Death, but although this may often have been a contributory factor, there were probably a complex of reasons, not all of which would necessarily have left any record; both Howick and St Andrews Minor actually survived as parishes into the 19th century. On the South Wales coast, a whole seroies of settlements and their churches were abandoned in the later Middle Ages because they were eventually overwhelmed by encroaching sand dunes. In this case, the villagers gradually moved inland, and either built a new church or adopted an existing chapel as the parish church. Sometimes the old parish church fell out of use because it was difficult to get to, and the parishioners built a new one somewhere more convenient. Although some services may have continued to be celebrated in the old church, usually the trouble and expense of maintaining two buildings eventually became too great to justify.

However, it is more likely to be some of the chapels that disappeared. Whereas tithes (10% of the income from every household) had been set up to finance the parish church and its priest, chapel finances could be more precarious. Chantry chapels were set up to pray for the souls of the dead, either within an existing church or as a new build on a greenfield site. They were provided with endowments to pay for a priest to say masses, but these endowments were confiscated by Henry VIII and Edward VI by Act of Parliament in 1545 and 1547. This left these chapels without any source of income, and in the case of a stand-alone chapel, not only would there be no money to pay the priest, but there would also be nothing to maintain the building. There were also pilgrimage chapels which had to close when the cult of saints was suppressed.

When a church or chapel fell out of use, its long-term survival would depend on whether a new use could be found for it. Many of them ended up as farm buildings – barns or cow houses – which gave their new owners an incentive to keep them in repair. Empty buildings with no use will eventually fall into disrepair, tumble down, and end up as quarries for their stone. Where enough survives for us to be able.