81313

 

II  

Designated  

22/07/2003  

22/07/2003  

Church of St Mary  

 

Vale of Glamorgan  

Llangan  

Cowbridge / Y Bont-Faen  

St. Mary Hill  

295784  

179322  

 

On the top of St. Mary Down with panoramic views and is itself widely visible.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The church is C12 but little remains of that date beyond the basic walling. The chancel could be a c1300 rebuild of the C12 original or a refurbishment of the same, but was in any case largely reconstructed in 1803 (tablet). The porch, nave windows and tower are probably early C16 in origin, although the tower may have been a heightening of the Norman one, but there is no datable feature in the lower half and the bell-stage and parapet are definitely C16 in character. However, the tower is recorded as having been rebuilt by Prichard in 1879-81 and certainly the stonework is much more carefully coursed than the rest of the church. The church was restored by John Prichard in 1879-85 at a cost of £800, with alterations and refurnishing as described above. There are four bells all dated 1746.  

Built of local white limestone random rubble with Sutton stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs with sandstone copings. Nave, chancel, south porch and west tower. The nave has a 3-light window on either side of the central gabled porch; lights with stilted arch heads and dripmould over. Similar arch to porch, gable coping, cross to apex. Coped east gable with cross. North wall has two 2-light windows of similar type. Victorian buttress to north-west corner. The chancel has a priest's door on the south wall, but no window either to this or to the north wall. Coped east gable with cross. Two-light east window with pointed heads and quatrefoil above, probably by Prichard. Square tower with pronounced batter and long-and-short quoins. The stonework is more carefully coursed than the rest of the church and is apparently Victorian work. The tower is featureless until the bell stage which has a 2-light opening with louvres and dripmould to each face. Corbelled out and castellated parapet.  

The interior of the church is largely Victorian in character with all the furnishings Victorian except for the C12 tub font and the good C18 wall memorials. The rood-stair is inaccessible. Victorian tower arch, and also the chancel arch, with the plain C12 one set into the north wall around the more westerly window. Possibly C13 double piscina on the south wall. Six-bay arch braced collar roof to the nave and a waggon roof to the chancel, both Victorian. Plaster bust of John Griffiths, Vicar 1848-55, later Archdeacon of Llandaff 1877-87.  

Included as a medieval church in a very prominent position in the landscape, which, despite alteration and rebuilding in the Victorian period, has retained its strong character.