History
The first church in Llangennith (Welsh: Llangynydd) was built by Saint Cenydd (Kenneth) in the 6th century AD, probably still of timber. It burned down in 986 during a Danish invasion. In the 11th or early 12th century it was rebuilt, as a stone building under the rule of the Anglo-Norman lords of Gower. The exact date of construction was not recorded, but it is known that it was ordained by bishop Herewald, who died in 1104.
Around 1107-1118, Henry de Beaumont donated the church to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Taurin in Évreux, France. The monks founded a small monastery in Llangennith, which served parishioners and oversaw the estate. In 1218 there were only two or three of them here. The chronicler Gerald of Wales also gave information about the local prior who engaged in an affair with a local woman and remained in the relationship despite numerous admonitions until he was finally deposed. Another information from 1291 recorded in papal Taxatio Ecclesiastica recorded a modest income of the community of just over £ 4 and possession of 120 acres of arable land and six cows.
In the early 14th century, the church was significantly rebuilt and enlarged. In 1414, King Henry IV took over all the monasteries that were affiliated with foreign houses, including the one at Llangennith, which Henry VI donated in 1441 to All Souls College from Oxford. The church remained under this new patronage until it was purchased by Major Penrice in 1838. His nephew donated the church to the parish in 1883. Between 1882 and 1884, the building underwent a thorough restoration.
Architecture
St. Cenydd’s Church was built on a gently descending southward slope. In the 13th century, it consisted of a spacious, rectangular nave and a much lower, shorter, and narrower chancel, also built on a rectangular plan. The massive tower was situated very unusually, on the north side, at the eastern end of the nave, most likely due to its earlier construction than the 13th-century nave. A porch was probably added to the north side of the nave in the 14th century. The church was orientated towards the cardinal sides of the world.
The tower had three floors, narrow lancet windows and a parapet on protruding corbels, topped with a battlement from the north and south. It could have defensive functions, but one can not exclude symbolic meaning or the desire to suspend heavy and large bells, which, with poor quality of mortar, forced construction of a stronger tower. On the other hand, the tower was not supported by any buttresses, only its corners were reinforced with ashlar, that is finely dressed, larger stones compared to the erratics from which the walls were built. In the lowest storey of the tower, a semicircular arcade was created from the east, later bricked up, but probably originally leading to the 12th-century church or to the monastery buildings.
Inside the church, neither the nave nor the chancel were vaulted. Initially, their lighting had to be provided by small, splayed windows, pierced in the chancel from the south and east, and in the nave from the south and north. During the Gothic period, larger pointed windows were introduced into the church architecture. Traditionally, the most impressive form had the eastern window of the chancel, filled with three-light tracery with trefoil and quatrefoil motifs, above which the composition was topped with a single opening, with the shape adjusted to give the whole a pyramidal form.
Current state
St Cenydd’s church in Llangennith is now one of the best-preserved medieval religious buildings in South Wales, and one of the most magnificent rural temples, distinguished by its large size and massive tower. Inside there is a 14th-century tombstone of a knight from the de la Mare family, and a fragment of a 9th-century cross at the western wall. Unfortunately, most of the windows and portals were renewed or replaced during the Victorian renovations. The exceptions are the eastern window in the ground floor of the tower and the northern portal of the nave from the 13th century. Also the eastern window of the chancel may date from the 14th century.
bibliography:
Burton J., Stöber K., Abbeys and Priories of Medieval Wales, Chippenham 2015.
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Newman J., The buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, London 1995.
Salter M., Abbeys, priories and cathedrals of Wales, Malvern 2012.
Salter M., The old parish churches of Gwent, Glamorgan & Gower, Malvern 2002.