18575

 

II*  

Designated  

18/07/1997  

28/02/2001  

Church of St Oudoceus  

 

Monmouthshire  

Wye Valley  

Monmouth  

Llandogo  

352676  

204081  

E  

On the eastern edge of the village of Llandogo close to the main road (A466). Set in a sloping, polygonal shaped, churchyard with rubble boundary wall.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The present church was erected in 1859 to 1861 by John Pollard Seddon, completely rebuilding the medieval church. Llandogo is a pre-Norman foundation first mentioned in c625 and was a monastic site. Further work was carried out in 1889 by Seddon and Coates Carter; externally the south porch and vestry were added and internally the decorative scheme for the chancel was executed including the reredos by Clarke of Llandaff and the mosaics by Powell of London. The walls were painted by a German artist to Coates Carter’s design. Seddon was surveyor to the Archdeaconry of Monmouth and consulting architect to the Incorporated Church Building Society which grant aided the rebuilding; he was in partnership with John Coates Carter between 1885 and 1904.  

Designed in C13 Gothic style. Aisled church with nave, with west and south porches, and chancel with vestry. Built of snecked red sandstone with Bath stone dressings under a Welsh slate roof with stone parapets and crucifix finials. The main entrance is on the west front, distinctive for its octagonal bellcote, with tall spire surmounted by a weathervane. The belfry has cusped openings with foliated capitals and its polygonal base continues downwards with two sexfoil panelled faces and a moulded bracket carried on a West Country style triple shaft. This is flanked by 2-light geometric windows with cinquefoil heads. Central gabled and stone-roofed porch with cusped inner arch and hoodmoulds that step outwards at impost level to join the ramped plinth; oak doors with ironwork hinges. The hoodmould is continuous round the church, under the windows and over the doors. At the junction of the nave and aisles there are buttresses; further buttresses at the corners of the aisles and chancel with unusual truncated shafts terminating in oversize capitals. Aisles have lancet west windows with foliated stops to hoodmoulds. The south side has two 2-light cusped windows and a simple gabled porch (now disused) with cusped head and gable cross; the north side has three similar windows; lancets at east ends of both aisles. Chancel has higher plinth, grander geometric 2-light windows and a 3-light east window with sexfoil oculus, all with foliated stops. This is very closely similar to the east indow of the Church of St Nicholas, Trellech. Priest's door to north side and small cusped vestry window. Good cast-iron rainwater goods, manufactured by Saracen Foundry, Glasgow, carried on stone eaves corbels and the large capitals over the corner buttresses. Coped gables with crosses. There are some good C18 and early C19 headstones and table tombs on the south side of the churchyard, some with volute carved ends flanking oval cartouches, two groups of these have been identified for listing separately; iron railed enclosure to one tomb to the Madley family. Hearse house to north-east corner. The churchyard is surrounded by a good stone wall which is separately listed.  

The church is plastered and painted. Three bay nave with narrow aisles and an arcade carried on cylindrical piers; subtle banded polychromatic decoration and foliated capitals to the easternmost respond. False hammerbeam roof with carved angels. Original furnishings retained including pews, the carved pulpit frontal and an octagonal font with foliage carving below the bowl. Two bay chancel has an arched-braced roof and is lavishly decorated with high quality stencil work both figurative and naturalistic below an inscription reading 'Then morning stars sang together, the Son of God shouted for joy'. Good mosaic figures of Moses and St Paul flank the altar behind which is a Devonshire marble reredos; the sanctuary is paved with encaustic tiles. The church also has fine stained glass, the east window is by Hardman; the west window in the north aisle (1908) by Heaton Butler and Bayne and other glass by Newbery. Monuments to the Bosanquet family. Contemporary subterranean heating system which is accessed from the east end of the nave.  

Listed Grade II* as a well-designed Victorian church with an especially fine decorative scheme to the chancel.