Llansantffraed is the smallest

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, located four miles to the west of

Raglan Raglan may refer to: People *FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855), British Army officer, commander of British troops during the Crimean War *Raglan (surname) *Raglan Squire (1912–2004), British architect Places Australia *Count ...

, north of the A40 between Raglan and

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

. There is no community, only the Llansantffraed Court estate and the church.

History

Llansantffraed is the smallest parish in

, covering only 290 acres. It is notable for its church, St Bride's (or St Bridget's), which is a Grade II* listed building, and Llansantffraed Court, the house which forms part of the Llansantffraed Estate. The house was registered as a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building in 2005. The court was designed by Fairfax Blomfield Wade-Palmer and C. Frankis in 1912 for a member of the Herbert family, major landowners in the county.

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...

suggests Edwin Lutyens' Monkton House in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

as their inspiration. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales describes the architecture of the court as "a Home Counties style unusual to Wales".

Joseph Bradney Colonel Sir Joseph Alfred Bradney, (11 January 1859 – 21 July 1933) was a British soldier, historian and archaeologist, best known for his multivolume ''A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present T ...

, writing in his multi-volume '' A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time'', noted the house as presenting "no particular signs of antiquity, but distinguished by its fine situation". Bradney also recorded the owner at the time of writing (1906) as being Major Edward Herbert, chief constable of Monmouthshire, and that previous residents had included two

Bishops of Llandaff The Bishop of Llandaff is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. Area of authority The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (the site of a ...

, William Van Mildert and Edward Copleston. The grounds have an ornamental lake and fountain. Llansantffraed Court operated as a hotel from mid 20th century until November 2019 when it was converted back to a private residence.

The Church of St Bride's

The Church of St Bride's (or St Bridget's) is situated in the grounds of Llansantffraed Court. Restored in 1858, it consists of a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, south porch and a western turret containing 2 bells. There are memorials in the chancel to the ancestors of the Jones and Herbert families: there are 55 sittings. In the churchyard is an ancient stone cross. The register dates from the year 1753.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{authority control Villages in Monmouthshire Grade II listed buildings in Monmouthshire