History
The church in the coastal borough of Kenfig had existed since the Anglo-Norman conquest, but due to sand blowing from the coastal dunes, it had to be abandoned at the end of the 14th century, and construction of a new church began inland. Materials from the earlier building were used in its construction, and the 15th-century work may have enlarged the smaller, older church that had previously stood in Pyle. According to the date on the roof truss of the new church, it was completed in 1471. In 1877, it was thoroughly renovated, and restored again in 1891, when a northern annex was also added to the chancel.
Architecture
The church was built on flat ground on the eastern side of the Kenfig River, approximately one hundred meters away. It consisted of a long, rectangular nave and a narrower and shorter, rectangular chancel on the eastern side. A quadrangular, three-story tower closed the western side of the church, while a simple porch was built at the southern entrance to the nave. This created one of the most popular and functional spatial layouts for rural parish churches in the Middle Ages, with the entire structure precisely orientated to the cardinal sides of the world.
St. James’s church was built of worked, evenly layered and mortared gray limestone, exhibiting a difference in the masonry on the southern wall of the nave at a height of 1.5 meters. Similarly, different stones were used in the chancel, suggesting different construction campaigns. The architectural details were made of brownish sandstone, softer and easier to shape. The use of large, precisely hewn blocks for construction in the late Middle Ages was unusual, so it may have been taken from another, older structure, for example, a castle or the church of Kenfig.
The tower’s external facades were divided by a moulded base cornice and upper string cornice. Due to the relatively low height and thick walls of the tower, buttresses were not deemed necessary. The crown of the walls was topped by a battlemented parapet, supported by corbels projecting considerably from the face of the walls. On the tower’s southern facade, a staircase was placed in a shallow projection. The projection terminated below the string cornice, thus avoiding the form of a corner turret popular in south Wales. The tower openings were few, small, and simple. A moulded entrance portal to the under-tower vestibule was created on the ground floor of the western wall.
The windows of the nave and chancel were installed on the south and east sides of the church, leaving the north façade without openings, in keeping with medieval building tradition and symbolism, which viewed evil forces in that direction, or for practical reasons, to limit cold and drafts from the side with the least sunlight. The windows were of wide variety of late Gothic forms: single-light, two-light, and three-light, with pointed arches or rectangular frames. All were topped with drip hoods, repeating the shape of the window archivolts, meaning pointed or straight, with steps on the sides. The openings were filled with tracery featuring trefoil and cinquefoil motifs.
The entrance to the church led through the south nave portal. Additionally, a narrow portal in the chancel was designated for the priests, decorated with double chamfering on both sides of the groove and topped with a strongly flattened pointed arch, creating an almost semicircular entrance opening. Inside the church, sunlight fell on a timber wagon roof in the nave (decorated alternately with masks and shields) and likely on an open roof truss in the chancel. The two parts were divided by a double-chamfered rood arcade, dying into quadrangular imposts. A similar arcade was created between the tower and the nave. In the Middle Ages, a timber rood screen probably separated the nave from the chancel, with stairs in the thickness of the northern wall leading to the upper loft.
Current state
Today, the church is one of the best-preserved late Gothic sacral buildings in Glamorgan. The nave retains its original 15th century wagon roof, rood arcade and under-tower arcade, as well as the octagonal font from the 15/16 centuries. The window and portal jambs are also largely original. The building’s ashlar facades are distinctive. The tower parapet is likely original, while the only significant modern addition is the northern sacristy.
bibliography:
Newman J., The buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, London 1995.
Salter M., The old parish churches of Gwent, Glamorgan & Gower, Malvern 2002.