Postcode
NP26 5TJ

Sunday Services
9.15 – Holy Eucharist

Worship

We gather every Sunday to worship together. Our worship centres around sharing at God’s table in the Eucharist, sung worship and hearing from God’s word.

Map & Accessibility

Parking – on the roads adjacent to the churchyard.

Churchyard – There are steps us to the churchyard from Main Road but level access from Sudbrook Road.

Church – There is a ramp down into the church. The pews are on a raised platform so there is a small step up into them.

Toilets – There is an accessible in the small heritage centre in the churchyard.

History

The parish church of St. Mary is mostly Norman with its massive walls and its chancel arch. It consists of nave and chancel, a tower at the West end, and a large porch on the South side.  It is considered to be one of the best examples of early architecture in South Wales.

In the year 1064 Harold, soon afterwards King of England, built what has been described as a castle or hunting lodge in Portskewett near the church.  Whatever the building was, it is a point of much interest and it is pleasing to think that both Harold and Edward the confessor, whom some say he entertained there, probably worshiped in the church.  The “Castle,” however, did not last long, it was destroyed in 1569 by Carodoc of Caerleon, a Welsh chieftain.

In the North wall is the remains of what is thought to have been a priest’s door, and over it is a massive stone with Greek shaped cross cut into it. This might be Saxon, or at least early Norman.

There is also a built in doorway in the North wall of the Chancel. The East window and another on the South side of the chancel were probably built by an unskilled workman who was trying to imitate something better.

In the churchyard, lie the remains of a fine churchyard cross.  Some people suppose the church to have been built by Harold.  Its plainness and the military character of the tower with its turrets, and its proximity to the traditional site of Harold’s castle lead credence to this view.

Over the last 1000 years the parish and even church has played host to a number of key figures. King Harold lived occasionally in the parish before 1066. King Charles I passed through in 1645. During the 1939-45 war King George VI and Queen Elizabeth rested in the Royal Train at the station siding prior to their tours of South Wales. Mr Winston Churchill also stayed a night here during the war. In 1948 Princess Elizabeth followed their example.

Copies of the booklet, ‘THE HISTORY OF OUR PARISH’, by Revd .E.T. Harvard B.A. can be obtained from the church.