History
St. Mary’s Church in Pembroke was built in the early 13th century. From that moment it was a parish building, under the patronage of Benedictine monks from the nearby priory in Monkton. In the mid-14th century, it was enlarged with a transept, and at the end of that century or at the beginning of the 15th century with a tower. Along with tower the adjacent chancel was also rebuilt. In the late Middle Ages, at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, a north aisle was added. Shortly afterwards, in connection with the dissolution of the priory in Monkton, the church became the property of the English Crown, and was then purchased by Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex, from whose foundation in the early 17th century, the south porch may have been built. In the second half of the 19th century, the building fell into neglect. Its Victorian renovation was carried out in 1876, when the windows were renewed, the roof and floors were replaced, the south porch was extended and the walls were slightly raised. Further repairs took place at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1924, the west porch was built.
Architecture
The church originally consisted of a late Romanesque nave on a rectangular plan and a chancel of similar width situated on the eastern side. In the mid-14th century, the church was enlarged by a transept, probably with two arms: southern and northern one. A massive tower was built at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries in an unusual location, on the northern side of the chancel. Although its form referred to the church tower in Tenby, in the region only the church tower in Manorbier had a similar location, which was older than the transept, unlike Pembroke. In Pembroke, the location of the tower on the northern side of the chancel may have been determined by the terrain conditions, namely the road to the town gate running on the western side of the church and the associated lack of space. On the eastern side of the tower, there may have been a small sacristy or chapel contemporary with it. The last medieval element of the church was the north aisle, added at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, which probably absorbed the adjacent transept and obtained the same length as the nave parallel to it.
The original entrance to the church led through the south wall of the nave, where narrow, splayed window openings with semicircular heads were placed high on the sides of the portal. The portal itself was also semicircular, moulded, but without a capital zone or plinths, similar in form to the entrance portal of the priory church in Monkton. Presumably, late Romanesque windows were also initially located in the chancel. The Gothic transept must had larger pointed windows, perhaps with trefoils popular at the time or filled with multi-light tracery. Some of the older late Romanesque windows in the nave may have been replaced by larger Gothic openings at that time. Certainly, the windows in the Perpendicular Gothic style were placed during the reconstruction in the chancel, at the time when the tower was added. Late Gothic windows also illuminated the aisle from the north and west.
The four-storey tower from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries did not receive all the elements typical of the region, because its base was not covered by a batter or a cornice, and the upper parts were only very slightly tapered. The north-west corner of the tower was equipped with a spiral staircase, protruding with shallow projections, the external elevation of which interrupted the row of corbels on which the tower’s battlemented parapet was mounted. Inside, the tower and the thoroughly rebuilt chancel were connected on the ground floor by an arcade with a triple-chamfered jamb, closed with a pointed arch and devoid of capitals. The tower was opened to the transept and then to the aisle with a similar arcade, but with a single chamfer. Originally, there was also a passage in the eastern wall to the adjacent small annex. The ground floor of the tower was covered with a barrel vault, on which quadrangular ribs were probably applied later. These ribs were springing from the corners and from the central parts of each wall, and in the middle of the vault from a circular opening through which the bell ropes were lowered. The upper storeys of the tower were separated by wooden ceilings.
The interior of the late Gothic northern aisle was opened to the older nave with four arcades, based on massive quadrangular pillars cut out of the older northern wall of the nave. The arcades were very crude for the late Middle Ages, closed with pointed arches without moulding or any other decorations. Only the corners of the pillars themselves were chamfered. The eastern bay of the aisle was created by absorbing the arm of the transept, creating a shallow recess in its northern wall representing the former gable wall. On its western side was the entrance portal, located opposite the main entrance to the church. It was probably intended to replace the northern portal, removed during the piercing of the inter-nave arcades.
Current state
The church of St. Mary, alongside the castle and the remains of the town fortifications, is today the most valuable medieval monument in the town of Pembroke. Its western porch is a modern addition, as is the extended southern porch, which now serves as a sacristy. In addition, the northern wall of the aisle was slightly raised, and the southern wall of the chancel was thoroughly rebuilt and stripped of all medieval architectural details. Two original bricked-up windows are located in the southern wall of the nave. The openings in the tower walls have also avoided transformation. The rest was modernised in the 19th century, and the chancel arcade was also replaced in 1876. However, the late Gothic arcades between the nave and aisle, the vault in the ground floor of the tower and the vault in the northern aisle have survived. The southern portal in the nave, the bricked-up portal in the chancel and the bricked-up northern portal in the aisle also date from the Middle Ages.
bibliography:
Barker T.W., Green F., Pembrokeshire Parsons, „West Wales historical records”, 3/1913.
Ludlow N., South Pembrokeshire Churches, An Overview of the Churches in South Pembrokeshire, Llandeilo 2000.
Ludlow N., South Pembrokeshire Churches, Church Reports, Llandeilo 2000.
Mathias A.G., St Mary, Pembroke, „Archaeologia Cambrensis”, 93/1938.
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.