19397

 

II  

Designated  

23/02/1998  

23/02/1998  

Church of Saint Bridget  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Marloes and St. Brides  

Haverfordwest  

St Brides  

180263  

210850  

 

Situated some 100m SE of the coast at St Brides Haven, approximately 750m E of St Brides Castle.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Anglican parish church, medieval, first mentioned 1291. Restored 1869 by Charles Buckeridge of Oxford, for £1,400 for which the church was substantially rebuilt with new windows in Portland and local stone. Sir Stephen Glynne visited in 1856 and noted that most of the windows were modern, shuttered, the exterior was whitewashed, but there was a mutilated E window. A rude and misshapen arch on the chancel N wall indicated a N chapel.  

Parish church. Rubble slate with roofs of small silver-grey slates. Long nave and chancel with W bellcote and nave E bellcote and gabled S porch. W end has battered wall base, coped gable and plain bellcote with ridged flat top and 2 flat-headed openings. 2 narrow W lancets. Nave S has 3 small Portland stone lancets with big porch between first and second. Buttress to E. Remains of blocked transept arch. Coped gabled porch with cross finial and chamfered sandstone round arch, possibly late medieval or C16. Stone benches in porch and inner door with cambered head. Nave E has coped gable and plain gabled bellcote with 2 segmental pointed openings. Nave N has 3 similar Portland stone lancets and transept to left. Transept has 2 sandstone lancets W, one narrow cusped lancet N and one to E, medieval. Small short N aisle to chancel with small rectangular N light, lancet E and roof swept over. One Portland stone N small lancet. E end coped gable and 3 Portland stone lancets. S side has one eroded medieval lancet to right, one C19 Portland stone lancet and, to left, a blocked narrow door and low late medieval rectangular small light.  

Whitewashed plastered walls, plastered pointed chancel arch with impost blocks. Blocked nave N door. Low plastered N transept arch. Corbels for rood loft, for which stair is pierced through to left of chancel arch, with C14 moulded slightly ogee arch to rear. Cambered arch to from chancel to N lean-to, now vestry, appears post medieval. Blocked chancel S door. 1869 fittings include rafter roofs 6 or 7-sided, patterned tiled floors, with encaustic tiles and some marble in chancel, pine pews, stalls with Gothic arcaded frontals and Gothic screen to N vestry and fine hanging corona in N transept. Also pulpit with panelled Gothic timber front of cusped arches under quatrefoils, on stone base and steps. C13 font, shallow scallopped square, the scallops flared out from a round shaft. The octagonal base is apparently another font upturned. Against nave E wall 2 bays of fine late medieval screen, each panel with 2-light blind tracery, a very rare survival. In N transept 4 eroded medieval gravestones: 2 with sculpted heads only, 3rd with sculpted head and canopy behind, 4th full draped effigy. Also, on the altar a lavishly carved semi-circular timber piece, late C17 or early C18 perhaps, depicting Solomon and Sheba, said to have been in the church in 1869, but presumably continental in origin. Early C17 carved cupboard door against W wall. Iron and brass candle-standards probably of 1869 to nave pews, and more elaborate to stalls. C18 style brass candelabrum in chancel, dated 1910, and Gothic E wall arcaded panelling of c1912, 11 bays with delicately carved detail. Stained glass: fine High Victorian E window with 6 C14-style scenes and clear glass between, attributed to Bell & Almond, 1869; Chancel 3 single lights, Archangels, 1911. N transept W lancet left, after 1877, Blessed are the pure in heart; right after 1869, 2 scenes of Raising the dead; N transept N lancet, 1874, Resurrected Christ; E lancet 1911 Virgin and Child. Nave 6 lancets of Christ in different guises, 1901 by Herbert Davis. W 2 lancets SS David and Bride, 1891, by Cox, Son & Buckley. Memorials: N transept N plaques to Charles Phillips of Hill (d 1749), and to Hugh Meare of Pierston (d 1745). Draped urn oval plaque to William Phillips (d 1798). E wall plaque to Elizabeth Phillips (d 1739).  

A medieval church carefully rebuilt in the C19 with good interior fittings, medieval to early C20.