History
Church in Begelly was probably built in the 13th century, originally dedicated to St. Bugail, from whom the settlement took its name. It was patronised by the lords of Begelly and Pembroke. In 1291, under the name of “Urgely”, its annual income was valued in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica at £12, a moderate sum at that time. Of this sum, 12 shillings were supposed to have been given to the English King Edward I Longshanks, as part of Pope Nicholas IV’s support for an expedition to the Holy Land, organised on the news of the fall of Acre, but ultimately failed.
It is likely that in the early 14th century the church was enlarged by the addition of a transept, which was built on the popularity of this architectural feature in the High Middle Ages. In the next stage of expansion from around the middle of that century, a Gothic chancel and a north chapel were built, while at the end of the Middle Ages, around the mid-16th century, a tower and a porch were added. At that time, the right of patronage over the church passed from local landowners to the wealthy Wogan family from Wiston.
In 1845, the church underwent renovation. It was probably not carried out on a large scale, and only focused on immediate needs, because the church was said to be in poor condition already in 1886. At that time, it also underwent another renovation, during which, among other things, the roofs were repaired and the damaged door and window frames were renewed. Then, in the first half of the 20th century, the building’s facades were plastered.
Architecture
The church was built of limestone and yellowish oolite for architectural details. It was situated on a slope of a hill descending to the east and south towards the river. Initially, it consisted of an elongated, rectangular nave measuring 11.4 x 4.4 meters, to which a transept was first added in the 14th century, and then a chancel measuring 6.1 x 4.4 meters, ended on the eastern side with a straight wall. In addition, a chapel was situated at the northern wall of the chancel, which merged with the northern transept, creating a rectangular annex 11.1 meters long and 4.3 meters wide.
Around the middle of the 16th century, a slender tower on a quadrangular plan measuring 6.2 x 5.7 meters and 21.5 meters high was erected on the western side of the nave. In accordance with the regional building tradition, its ground floor was enclosed by a batter, while the upper parts slightly tapered. Its interior was divided into three floors, connected by a projecting turret with a staircase equipped with 105 steps, located in the north-eastern corner. The tower was topped with a battlement, without the popular in the region series of protruding corbels. The staircase was lit by very small slits. A larger, two-light late Gothic window was placed on the first floor in the western façade, just above the entrance portal. The highest floor of the tower was lit by simple two-light openings with chamfered jambs.
The oldest windows of the nave could have been narrow and splayed openings with still Romanesque forms or early Gothic lancet heads, while the northern wall, in accordance with the medieval building tradition, was originally devoid of windows. The parts of the church added in the 14th century were probably already lit using larger pointed windows with tracery in the form of trefoils. In the eastern wall of the chancel, in the place traditionally intended for the most impressive opening, a two-light window with two trefoils and a quatrefoil placed in the middle above was placed. The whole was framed by a pointed drip cornice. The entrance to the church led through the north and south portals in the nave, both with pointed arches. The chamfered south portal was preceded in the second half of the 16th century by a porch with an upper storey. During this period, a large part of the church windows were transformed in the Perpendicular Gothic style. Their characteristic features were tracery using ogee arches with inscribed trefoils and quadrangular frames.
Inside the church, the chancel arch separating the chancel from the nave was height, chamfered along entire height and had a pointed head. Above it and on the sides, stone corbels were placed, originally supporting the rood screen. Its first floor was accessible by stairs from the northern chapel. The transept and the space in the ground floor of the tower were also opened to the nave with pointed arcades. The latter being the only room in the church covered with a barrel vault, pierced with holes to lead the ropes for operating the bells. The northern chapel was opened to the chancel with two chamfered, pointed arcades supported by a cylindrical pillar and two half-pillars, all with very simple heads. The southern transept was connected to the chancel by a passage in the thickness of the wall.
Current state
The church that has survived to this day underwent a Victorian renovation, which is why it now has largely medieval walls, but most of the architectural details have been replaced or renewed. The new windows appear to be largely imitations of the originals, or late Gothic windows from the 16th century, and occupy their original locations. In addition, the eastern window of the chancel reuse the 14th-century stonework. A completely new opening is the window in the northern wall of the nave. In the 19th century, the southern and western openings of the highest floor of the tower were rebuilt, including the parapet on the same sides. The southern portal, the chancel arcade and the transept arcades, the northern and eastern windows of the tower, the stoups, the piscina and the wall recess in the chancel (both bricked up since the 1920s) have survived from the medieval period. In the church, a dozen or so carved stones, probably from the 15th century (e.g. removed tracery, stones decorated with five-leaf flowers), were placed on shelves as part of a small exhibition. The former porch, after the entrance portal was bricked up, now serves as a sacristy.
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.