St Mary
Portskewett, Monmouthshire
Considered to be one of the best examples of early architecture in south Wales.
This church is likely to be the fourth built upon this site. Its origins go back to around the 600s when St. Tewdric, the local Dark Age ‘King’, was mortally injured in battle by invading Anglo-Saxons whilst successfully disputing a crossing of the Wye at Tintern. On the north wall of the chancel you will find a plaque outlining the story. God has been worshipped here for over 1400 years. Most of the present church dates from the 13th century; the tower was finished in 1482, the organ bay is the newest dating from 1890.
The chancel may have been the entire church, prior to the Bishops of Llandaff. The arches may have come second-hand as a job-lot from Tintern Abbey when re-building works there At about that time the Bishop of Llandaff was building the first stages of his Palace next door and would have needed a ‘status’ sized church for his household and official purposes. It is believed St Tewdric & five Bishops are buried underneath.
The chancel arch is of Early English style. At one stage it supported a rood loft, and the slots for part of this can be seen, damaged due to vandalism in Henry VIII’s time, or possibly during the Civil War.
The altar stands upon a genuine piece of Persian carpet. Behind it, the reredos depicts, St. Tewdric, in highly mediaeval garb; Bishop Marshall, who holds the tower he built; Bishop William Morgan, who translated The Bible into Welsh; Bishop Hughes, who was bishop when the Church in Wales ‘disestablished’ itself from England.
The tower is magnificent similar to the Somerset towers across the Severn Estuary and the view from the top is to be admired. The tower holds a peal of six bells still regularly used, tuned to A flat, and cast in Chepstow by one William Evans at his works in Welsh Street in 1765. On its outside southern face it has an old and mighty sundial that has just been repainted. Mathern time is nearly 12 minutes later than Greenwich time.