The Church of St Martin, Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, Wales, was begun in the 12th century, although most of the current structure dates from the 13th century. The church is most notable for its extreme tilt, the result of a landslide. This has led to many attempts to strengthen the church and prevent its collapse, through the use of massive tie beams and buttresses. The church is in the Gothic style, and has a chancel, nave, south porch, and western tower. A round-headed north window dates to the 12th century, and the nave roof has been dated to the late 13th or early 14th century. St Martin's is a Grade I listed building and an active parish church. It is dedicated to St Martin of Tours.
The church is difficult to date but the North-West window in the nave is the oldest feature, from the 12th century.[1] The underlying geology is of Old Red Sandstone overlying marl, and processes of slippage and subsidence over the centuries have caused the tower and chancel to move in opposite directions, twisting the entire structure. The initial landslips must have occurred soon after the original construction as the medieval fabric of the church shows evidence of repairs and rebuilding in attempts to address the instability of the site.[2] The tower is medieval[1] but cannot be dated with certainty.[3] A Victorian restoration by J. James Spencer in 1887[1] added buttresses to the nave and chancel and flying buttresses to the tower.[2] These efforts sought to stabilise the church rather than to "set (it) straight".[3] Further renovations took place in 1991.[1] St Martin's is known as "the crooked church" due to the extreme nature of its non-alignment[4] and has been called "the most crooked in Britain".[5] The church is an active church in the parish of Llanvihangel Crucorney with Oldcastle and Cwmyoy and Llanthony.[6]
Architecture and description
The church is constructed of Old Red Sandstonerubble with stone-tiled roofs.[1] The architectural style is Gothic and the building comprises a nave, chancel, porch and a three-storeyed tower with a castellatedparapet.[1] The interior is slightly less altered than the exterior, the nave roof dating from the late 13th or early 14th centuries.[3] The unevenness of the structure remains very evident, however, the writer Simon Jenkins noting, "visitors might be on the deck of a galleon in a storm, with the chancel about to slide overboard".[7] The Monmouthshire writer and artist Fred Hando describes the church chancel as an example of a "weeping chancel", where the non-alignment of the nave and chancel axes was deliberate and was intended to represent the body of Christ in death, the nave standing for the body and the chancel standing for the head, fallen to the right.[8] The rood screen is a "remarkable work of craftsmanship".[7] The church's windows are 16th-century and the communion rails date to the 17th century.[3] A number of 18th- and 19th-century funeral monuments within the church were constructed by three generations of the Brute family of the distant village of Llanbedr, near Crickhowell, Powys.[3]
The tower contains a set of six bells dating from 1672, 1697, 1700, 1700, 1722 and 1722. Cadw notes that a set of this age with such contiguous dates is "a rarity".[1] However, the bells cannot be rung in the proper manner, as one or more of the bells are cracked or broken and the tower has been deemed incapable of supporting the forces generated by change ringing.[9]
The church is a Grade I listed building, its listing noting its "interesting history, distinctive historic character and fine fittings".[1]
Cwmyoy Cross
The Cwmyoy Christ
In the nave of the church stands a stone cross, sometimes referred to as a wayside cross or crucifix, dated to the 11th or 12th century. In the Middle Ages the cross, which bears a rare carving of Christ on the cross, would have stood in the churchyard to be venerated by pilgrims travelling through the Black Mountains, via Llanthony Abbey, to St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire.[10]
At the Reformation the cross was buried in the churchyard for safety, although Henry VIII's soldiers never came to the church. In 1967 the cross was stolen but was eventually located in a London antique shop after being recognised by the Keeper of Sculpture at the British Museum. It was returned to the church, although without its stepped base, and is now set into a square-shaped stone which bears an inscription.[11][10]
The cross is described by the eminent Monmouthshire antiquarian J. M. Lewis in his 2000 article "The Cwmyoy Crucifix" for The Monmouthshire Antiquary.[12][13]
Parish
St. Martin's Church is part of the amalgamated Benefice of Llantilio Pertholey. It is still an active church, and a regular service of Holy Communion is held each Sunday at 9.30am.[14]
Churchyard
Preaching cross
The preaching cross is a scheduled ancient monument.[15] Amongst the gravestones, a modern example consisting of a roughly hewn purple slate pillar close to the north-west corner of the church is notable. It marks the resting place of the racing driver Arthur Denys Gill (1926–2008), who farmed nearby after retirement from the sport.[16][17]
Llanthony Priory is a partly ruined former Augustinian priory in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep-sided once-glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It lies seven miles north of Abergavenny on an old road to Hay-on-Wye at Llanthony. The priory ruins lie to the west of the prominent Hatterrall Ridge, a limb of the Black mountains. The main ruins are under the care of Cadw and entrance is free.
The Vale of Ewyas is the steep-sided and secluded valley of the River Honddu, in the Black Mountains of Wales and within the Brecon Beacons National Park. As well as its outstanding beauty, it is known for the ruins of Llanthony Priory, and for several noteworthy churches such as those at Capel-y-ffin and Cwmyoy. It is sometimes referred to as the "Llanthony Valley" as Llanthony is the village situated at the valley centre.
Cwmyoy is an extensive rural parish in Monmouthshire, Wales. The standard Welsh name is Cwm Iau or Cwm-iau. In the Gwentian dialect of Welsh that was spoken here until the late 1800s, the name was pronounced as Cwm Iou. The 'English' name is in fact this local dialect form in a more English spelling. The name of the valley probably originates from the Welsh word iau meaning yoke, in reference to the shape of the hill surrounding it.
Pen-y-clawdd is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, situated between Raglan and Monmouth. The village is the site of a medieval fortification and there is a historic church with an ancient cross in the churchyard which is a scheduled monument.
St Michael and All Angels Church, Llanfihangel Rogiet, is a redundant church in the hamlet of Llanfihangel Rogiet near the village of Rogiet, Monmouthshire, Wales. It has been designated by Cadw as a Grade II* listed building and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. The church stands in a rural site between two farms, is near the Paddington-Swansea railway line, and close to the intersection of the M4 and M48 motorways. It can be approached only through a private farmyard.
St David's Church, Llangeview, is a redundant church sited in a round churchyard adjacent to the junction of the A449 and A472 roads 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of the town of Usk in Monmouthshire, Wales. It has been designated by Cadw as a Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. It is Grade I listed because of its "exceptional interior" including a 15th-century rood-loft and "rare pre-Victorian box pews and fittings". The church stands in a churchyard that is almost circular, and is surrounded by a bank and the traces of a ditch.
St Tyfrydog's Church, Llandyfrydog is a small medieval church, in Llandyfrydog, Anglesey, north Wales. The date of establishment of a church on this site is unknown, but one 19th-century Anglesey historian says that it was about 450. The oldest parts of the present building are dated to about 1400, with the chancel dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. It is built from rough, small, squared stones, dressed with limestone. One of the windows on the south side is raised to illuminate the pulpit, a decision that in the eyes of one 19th-century commentator "disfigures the building."
St Caffo's Church, Llangaffo is a 19th-century church, in the south of Anglesey, north Wales, about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the county town, Llangefni. It was constructed in 1846 to replace the previous medieval church in the village of Llangaffo. The new building includes a number of monuments from the old church, and has a spire which is a prominent local landmark. The churchyard has part of a stone cross dating from the 9th or 10th century, and some gravestones from the 9th to 11th centuries. It is dedicated to St Caffo, a 6th-century martyr who was killed in the vicinity.
St Nidan's Church, Llanidan is a 19th-century parish church near the village of Brynsiencyn, in Anglesey, north Wales. Built between 1839 and 1843, it replaced the Old Church of St Nidan, Llanidan, which needed significant repair, providing a place of Anglican worship nearer to the village than the old church. Some items were moved here from the old church, including the 13th-century font, two bells from the 14th and 15th century, and a reliquary thought to hold the remains of St Nidan. The tower at the west end has been described as "top heavy" and looking like "a water tower".
St Mary's Church, Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy is a medieval parish church in the north-west of Anglesey, north Wales. The date of foundation of the church, which is in the village of Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy, is unknown, but the oldest parts date from the 11th or 12th century. It has twice been enlarged: in the 15th century, when the chancel was rebuilt, and in the 16th century, when a chapel was added to the south of the chancel, separated by three arches. The tower at the west end is from the 17th century. A south porch of unknown date has been converted into a vestry, and the church is now entered through the tower.
St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church at Dixton in Wales. It is situated on the banks of the River Wye, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Monmouth, Wales. The church is a Grade II* listed building and the cross in the churchyard is both a listed building and a scheduled monument.
Monmouthshire is a county and principal area of Wales. It borders Torfaen and Newport to the west; Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the east; and Powys to the north. The largest town is Abergavenny, with the other major towns being Chepstow, Monmouth, and Usk. The county is 850 km2 in extent, with a population of 95,200 as of 2020. The present county was formed under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, which came into effect in 1996, and comprises some sixty percent of the historic county. Between 1974 and 1996, the county was known by the ancient title of Gwent, recalling the medieval Welsh kingdom. In his essay on local government in the fifth and final volume of the Gwent County History, Robert McCloy suggests that the governance of "no county in the United Kingdom in the twentieth century was so transformed as that of Monmouthshire".
St Ceinwen's Church, Llangeinwen, is a Grade II* listed building in Anglesey, north Wales. It is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from the neighbouring St Mary's Church, Llanfair-yn-y-Cwmwd.
St Tewdric's Church is a Church in Wales parish church in Mathern, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is purportedly built over the resting place of Saint Tewdrig for whom it is named. A church has been located on the site since the 6th century. It was reconstructed by the Normans in the Early English style, and later was renovated by the Victorians. It is a Grade I listed building.
St Mary's Church, also called St Mary Virgin Church, is a Church in Wales parish church in Caldicot, Monmouthshire, Wales. There is evidence that the church has pre-Norman foundations; however, the earliest part of the building dates from the 14th century. It is a Grade I listed building.
St David's Church is a medieval structure at Llanthony Priory. Established as a church in the sixteenth century, and restored in the late nineteenth century, the church became a Grade I-listed building on 1 September 1956.
St Donat's Church is a Grade I listed church in St Donats, in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It became a Grade I listed building on 22 February 1963.
The Church of St Madoc, Llanbadoc, Monmouthshire is a parish church with its origins in the 14th century. A Grade II* listed building, the church remains an active parish church.
The Church of St Andrew, Tredunnock, Monmouthshire is a parish church with its origins in the 12th or 13th century. A Grade II* listed building, the church remains an active parish church.
The Church of St Issui, Partrishow, Powys, Wales, is a Grade I listed parish church dating from 1060. The existing building was mainly constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries and was sensitively restored in 1908–1909. The church is most famous for its rood screen which dates from 1500. It is a Grade I listed building.
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