History
Probably from the 12th century, the patronage of the church belonged to the Benedictines from Monkton. In 1291, the church of St. Mary was recorded in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, a list of ecclesiastical property in England, Wales and Ireland, which was compiled for tax purposes. The annual income of the church at Angle was then estimated at £8, of which 16 shillings was to be given to King Edward I as part of the tithe promised to him by the Pope to finance an expedition to the Holy Land. After Henry V abolished the priory at Monkton as a branch of a French monastery, the rectory at Angle passed into royal hands. In 1461 the “ecclesia de Angulo” was granted to the English abbey of St Albans, but returned to the king’s hands at the time of the Reformation.
At the beginning of the 19th century the church was in poor condition. The first Victorian renovations were carried out in 1853, when the parish schoolroom was licensed to hold services. It were probably extensive and led to the replacement of most of the medieval architectural details. New roofing, floors and plasters were also installed. Further renovations took place in the 1880s. During this works, among other things, the sacristy and the northern chapel were built.
Architecture
The church was founded in the bend of a small stream, on its eastern side and at the same time on the opposite bank in relation to the local tower house. In the 14th century it had a Latin cross layout. It consisted of a single nave measuring approximately 15.2 x 6.1 meters, a narrower and lower chancel on the eastern side measuring approximately 9.1 x 4.5 meters, northern and southern transepts and a porch in front of the southern entrance to the nave, possibly added later. Each element of the church was covered with its own gable roof, originally covered with slate, thatch or possibly roof tiles.
The quadrangular tower, situated on the western side of the nave and partially embedded in it, was built at the end of the 15th century or at the very beginning of the 16th century. Its base was had slight batter without a cornice. In the south-west corner, a spiral staircase was placed, protruding with a shallow quadrangular projection, and the whole was topped with a parapet and battlement mounted on corbels protruding from the face (the corbels did not cover only the part with the staircase). Unlike most church towers in the region, the tower in Angle was not tapered in the upper parts. The windows in its walls were mostly very simple in form, except for a two-light window in the ground floor of the western wall, where a two-light window with cinquefoil heads was placed, framed by a segmental drip cornice.
The interior of the church in the Middle Ages probably did not have a vault, except for the ground floor of the tower covered with a barrel vault, which was opened to the nave with a pointed arcade. The transept was also probably connected to the nave by arcades, and the chancel was separated from the nave by a pointed arcade. Just in front of it there could have been a rood screen, a very popular feature in Welsh village parish churches. Wooden wagon roofs could have been built over the nave and chancel, or these spaces could have been opened to the roof truss.
Current state
The southern wall of the nave with two buttresses, the chancel and the porch of today’s church are the result of a thorough reconstruction and renovation in Victorian times. The walls of the northern transept were also refaced at that time and a chapel with a sacristy were added to the chancel. Originally, the southern transept, which no longer exists, adjoined the church. Medieval windows, including one with tracery, have been preserved in the walls of the tower. One probably bricked-up original window is also visible in the western part of the northern wall of the nave. The remaining windows and the chancel arcade date from the 19th-century reconstruction. Of the medieval furnishings of the church, only the Romanesque baptismal font has survived.
bibliography:
Barker T.W., Green F., Pembrokeshire Parsons, „West Wales historical records”, 1/1911.
Glynne S.R., Notes on the Older Churches in the Four Welsh Dioceses, „Archaeologia Cambrensis”, 2/1885.
Ludlow N., South Pembrokeshire Churches, An Overview of the Churches in South Pembrokeshire, Llandeilo 2000.
Ludlow N., South Pembrokeshire Churches, Church Reports, Llandeilo 2000.
Salter M., The old parish churches of South-West Wales, Malvern 2003.
The Royal Commission on The Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions in Wales and Monmouthshire. An Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire, VII County of Pembroke, London 1925.