13625

 

II*  

Designated  

28/01/1963  

03/05/2002  

Church of St Andrew  

 

Vale of Glamorgan  

Dinas Powys  

Cardiff  

St Andrews Major  

313855  

171467  

S  

On low-lying ground in the centre of the hamlet, a still rural community NW of the urban development of Dinas Powys, standing in a roughly rectangular churchyard with retaining wall incorporating stone stiles.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Possibly a Norman foundation (font is Norman) associated with Llandough. Lords of the Manor of Dinas Powis, initially the de Sumeri family then their descendants, paid tithes to Tewkesbury Abbey and maintained N aisle. The Hurst and Lee families of Mount Pleasant/The Mount later held the manor. Most fabric is later medieval, N aisle an addition to the nave. Porch and tower late C15/early C16. Original burial chapel at end of N aisle became ruinous early C19. Restored C19 and C20. Chancel including chancel arch and E windows restored late C19, painted ceiling of 1889. Plaque records restoration by Colonel Cecil Locke Wilson (Teather and Wilson) TD FRIBA of Garn Hill St Andrews, churchwarden and diocesan surveyor 1922-24, (died 1924); chancel windows SE by Horace Wilkinson 1922, SW by Kempe and Tower 1911. In the churchyard is the monument to the local Bard, Dewi Wyn O-Essyllt 1820-1891.  

Medieval Parish Church. Large unbuttressed W tower, nave, S porch, chancel, separately roofed N aisle with NE chapel. Built of rubble with ashlar dressings including deep copings. kneelers with St Andrew's cross, Welsh slate roof with corbel table and cruciform finials. W tower is 4-storeyed and attached to W nave but not N aisle, heavily battered at W below a string course; embattled parapet on corbel table; small chamfered rectangular lights to tower chambers; ground floor has to N a square-headed 3-light window with mullions and diamond quarries under a relieving arch; at S is a 4-centred arched doorway. Deep S porch has plain pointed-arched doorway with voussoirs; inside are stone seats, unplastered wall with plaques, 2 arch-braced trusses, boarded ceiling; main S doorway has broadly chamfered pointed arch under a relieving arch. S nave has a 2-light window under square hoodmould. blocked light to former rood-screen. S chancel has 2 windows under square hoodmoulds, one single one double-light with cusped heads; chamfered pointed arched narrow priests' doorway; E window of 2 cusped lights with quatrefoil tracery. NE chapel set back and of different masonry has similar E window. N aisle is slightly battered and has two windows of 3 chamfered lights under a shallow square hoodmould; one straight joint in the fabric to W and blocked square-headed opening to E probably to light former roodscreen and staircase. Similar W window to N aisle and chimney at junction of aisle and nave at W.  

Interior is rendered with exposed dressings. 4-bay N aisle arcade with plain wide-chamfered pointed arches, no capitals; octagonal piers on octagonal plinths on square bases; NE pier pierces the chancel wall; adjacent squint between N aisle and chancel. Rood screen opening to NE at upper level, plain pointed arch to NE chapel; rood extended across both units. 4-bay arched-braced nave and aisle roofs. Main side windows have very wide splays. Vestry at W, monuments of local alabaster. Pointed moulded chancel arch runs out into wall (C19). Chancel has ceiling of decorative painted panels in red and white, predominantly red over sanctuary; also painted panels flanking a reredos on E wall which has raised emblems of the Passion; encaustic tile floor. At NE is organ chamber and the Lee chapel, the floor inlaid 1877 but arch from N aisle is medieval. Bells of 1747 cast by William Evans. Norman bowl font on a stem on later plinth. Sculptural First World War memorial.  

Listed at II* as a medieval church retaining much of its historic fabric. Group value with The Old Rectory, the churchyard cross and bier house.