11223

 

II  

Designated  

26/07/1963  

29/01/1999  

Church of St Tudwg  

 

Bridgend  

Merthyr Mawr  

 

Tythegston  

285775  

178818  

 

Set back from E side of minor road through the hamlet, in a walled churchyard.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

First mentioned in 1173 when it was a chapel of Tewkesbury Abbey but an early Christian monument in the churchyard and the dedication to a Celtic saint suggest an earlier foundation. The present building is late medieval in origin but was almost completely rebuilt by John Prichard in 1876. Became redundant late C20.  

Tudor-Gothic style church consisting of nave with bellcote and S porch, and a lower chancel. Battered rubble stone walls, coped gables and slate roof (part renewed). The nave has a 2-light window L of porch, 3-light to R, to R of which is a shallow projection (probably for a side altar). The porch has a plain 2-centred S doorway. Inside the porch is a pointed arched-brace roof and a S door similar to W and priest's door. The chancel has two 2-light S windows, a central late-medieval priest's door with 2-centred head and stop-chamfer surround, and a boarded door with decorative strap hinges. The E window has a renewed 3-light Perpendicular window. The N walls of chancel and nave have 1- and 2-light windows respectively. The W wall of the nave has a late-medieval doorway similar to but wider than priest's door. Above is a late-medieval 2-light window with ogee-headed lights. Gabled bellcote has a single segmental-pointed opening containing a single bell of late C14 or early C15 date.  

The chancel arch is late-medieval and Tudor-headed. The remainder of the interior is C19. The nave has an arched-brace roof, the chancel a roof with scissor braces on short wall posts, and with a boarded ceilure over the sanctuary. The font has a round bowl and pedestal, C13 but re-tooled C19. The plain round pulpit has a frieze of blind quatrefoils. The E window has early C20 glass depicting Christ, Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, by Jones & Willis. In the chancel N wall are 2 neo-classical tablets: to Lucy Lord (d.1856), with a willow draped over an urn, by T. Gaffin of London; and to Elizabeth Puget (undated) by Henry Wood. Other C17 and C18 wall tablets are in the nave, some brought in from outside during the 1876 restoration.  

A small parish church with medieval origins, retaining good C19 detail. Cross in churchyard is Scheduled Ancient Monument GM 214.