History
The church of St. Michael in Bosherston was built at the end of the 13th century on the site of an earlier temple. It was mentioned for the first time in documents in 1291. In the fifteenth century, it was enlarged by adding a western tower and extending the chancel to the east by one span. In 1855, it was renovated by Count Cawdor of the Stackpole Court, in whose lands it was located. The northern sacristy and the southern porch were also added at that time.
Architecture
The church was erected on a Latin cross plan, consisting of a fairly short, rectangular nave with dimensions of 10 x 5.5 meters, a narrower, also rectangular chancel on the eastern side, 6.5 x 4 meters in size, a soaring three-story tower on the side west, built on a square plan with sides 4.9 meters, and the small transept from the north and south. The southern transept was connected with a diagonal passage (squint) with the chancel, perhaps also the northern connection of the transept originally connected with the northern wall of the chancel. The 13th-century chancel was originally shorter by one bay. It was extended in the 15th century, when a tower was also added. Inside the church, the nave and both arms of the transept were crowned with a pointed tunnel vaults, and a room in the ground floor of the tower was also vaulted.
Current state
The north sacristy and the southern porch of the church are early modern additions. The original Norman windows were replaced in the nineteenth century by larger neo-Gothic ones, the original, narrow and longitudinal window openings are preserved only in the tower. Among the original equipment the Norman baptismal font, the tomb of Princess Buckingham in the northern transept and the 14th century tomb of an unknown crusader in the southern transept has preserved.
bibliography:
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.
Website britishlistedbuildings.co.uk, St. Michael and All Angel’s Church. A Grade II Listed Building in Stackpole, Pembrokeshire.