6082

 

II  

Designated  

21/06/1971  

15/10/1997  

Mounton Chapel  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Templeton  

 

Mounton  

208084  

213255  

 

In an isolated position at the S edge of Canaston Wood, 1 km N of Mounton Farm. No graveyard wall or tombstones. Base of a preaching cross survives close to the SW corner.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

A small mediaeval church, its chancel perhaps late C13/C14 (on the evidence of an original window) and its nave perhaps earlier, in a circular churchyard. Mounton was an estate of the Bishops of St David's, alienated at the time of Bishop Barlow. To the original nave and chancel a late porch and a late poorly constructed small extension at the N side were added. After a long period of neglect the church was said, in 1670, to be in ruins. It appears to have been in active use again in the C18 and C19, perhaps coinciding with a great increase of population in Mounton parish. There appears to have been a restoration of the church in 1743 when William Callen of the Grove was churchwarden, commemorated by a date and his initials carved on a nave beam. This may also be the date of the porch and N extension (for stairs to the former W gallery). There was another restoration in the early C19. In 1840 the church became a chapel of ease under Narberth. Further restoration was carried out in the late C19 by the Rt. Rev. Richard Lewis, Bishop of Llandaff. The church was re-roofed. It was last restored in 1939-40. It remained in use and in repair until 1948. It is now (1996) again redundant and in poor condition. Materials from the church have been dispersed: stained glass to St Martin's, Haverfordwest (to a window at SE of the Chancel); Sgt. Hughes' memorial to Slebech; other items to Robeston Wathen and Narberth.  

Nave of 5 by 8 m and chancel of 5 by 3m. Later porch at the W end. Small extension to the nave at the N side near to the W corner, probably for gallery stairs. Neither the porch nor the extension are bonded to the original masonry. There is a bellcote for a single bell over the W gable of the nave. Masonry of uncoursed local rubble stone, said to be pointed in lime and coaldust. Larger quoins. The roof is of slate with tile ridges. One late C13/C14 narrow trefoil-headed light in the S side of the chancel. In the N wall opposite is an undatable rectangular window. At high level, in the W wall of the nave are two narrow lights. The other windows of the church are as restored in the C19: pointed E window of two trefoil-headed lights; two flat-headed windows in the nave with one or two mullions, with, beneath the sills, the blocking of the preceding narrower windows. Another flat-headed two-mullion window (one mullion missing) in the N wall of the nave. An exterior S door to the chancel has been walled up in yellow sandstone rubble masonry. A blocked doorway in the N of the nave has a four-centred arch. Two-light W window at high level. The porch has an equilateral outer arch, chamfered, formed with two large stones and a small keystone.  

The interior was well restored, including the reconstruction of the roof. Three bay roof to the nave with king-post trusses; single purlin each side. The N wallplate carries over the N extension. In the chancel there are no trusses, the rafters being carried on strutted purlins. There is sarking boarding overall to which the slates are fixed. Remains of suspended boarded floor. There are corbels of a lost W gallery. The chancel arch is equilateral pointed, but oddly wider than the wall beneath. It is plain and unchamfered. In the chancel there is an arch-headed recess each side of the E window, discovered in the C20 restoration. Trefoil-headed C14 piscina discovered and re-opened at the same time. The nave plastering is said to be over slate hanging over earlier plaster. One of two large memorial stones beneath the altar is said to have survived, inscribed in memory of -- Poyer, wife of William? Oliver, died 1792  

Listed, notwithstanding very poor condition, as a small mediaeval church in which several original features remain.