History
Church in Llansannor was first recorded in 1180, as the property of Tewkesbury Abbey, but at that time it was probably still a small chapel of ease (“Capella St Senwarae de la Thawe”). In the 1254 tax register, its annual income was small, listed as just three pounds. By the 13th century, it was recorded as being in the possession of the Lords of Glamorgan, under whom it was enlarged with a chancel. The church’s interior was probably decorated with figurative paintings in the 14th century, while a tower and porch were built in the early 16th century. At an unknown date in the 19th century, the building underwent a Victorian renovation.
Architecture
Church of St. Senwyr was built in the broad valley of the River Thaw, on the eastern side of its bed. At the end of the Middle Ages, it consisted of a rectangular nave dating from the 12th century and a quadrangular chancel with a straight end on the east side, built in the following century. Unusually, the chancel was almost identical in width and height to the nave. On the west side stood a slender, modest-sized tower dating from the 16th century, while the southern entrance to the nave led through a late Gothic porch.
The original windows providing light to the Romanesque nave must have been very narrow, splayed inward, and probably simply constructed. The early Gothic chancel already had trefoil windows, also deeply splayed inward, with two such openings set closely together in the eastern wall. In the late Middle Ages, some of the windows were likely enlarged to provide more light into the interior and to introduce architectural detail in line with contemporary tastes. These were likely multi-light, traceried windows, perhaps with quadrangular frames.
The entrance to the church led through the south wall of the nave. Originally, it must have featured a Romanesque portal, replaced in the 15th or 16th century by a Gothic portal with a low pointed head. During this period, the entrance was preceded by the aforementioned porch, accessed through a portal with a moulded jamb and segmental head, topped by a massive drip hood with double-bent ends. A second entrance, at least since the late Middle Ages, led from the west, through a vestibule on the ground floor of the tower, after it was was built at the nave.
The church’s interior was covered over the nave and chancel by an open roof truss. The 15th-century nave featured the popular arched collar beams and rafters, as well as longitudinal reinforcement in the form of three levels of rounded wind braces between the purlins. The rafters were mounted to the walls using timber corbels mounted on stone consoles. The lower and upper sections of the wooden corbels were moulded, while the middle ones were formed like short shafts. The ridge purlin at the junction with the collar beams was decorated with wooden bosses in various floral shapes.
Current state
The church is now a building composed of elements from many different periods. The triangular gables and the roof crowning the tower are certainly early modern additions. Most of the windows were transformed in the 17th or 18th century, and then during the Victorian reconstruction. A new opening was made in the south wall of the chancel in the 19th century, which also widened the chancel arcade. The original 13th-century window is located in the east wall of the chancel. Inside the nave, a high-quality wooden roof truss from the 15th century, as well as a font and a very well-preserved tombstone of a knight from the late 14th century have been preserved. On the south wall, a fragment of a polychrome depicting St. Christopher can be seen.
bibliography:
Newman J., The buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, London 1995.
Salter M., The old parish churches of Gwent, Glamorgan & Gower, Malvern 2002.