St David's Church, Laleston is a Grade I listed church in

Laleston Laleston is a village and a community in Bridgend County Borough, south Wales, directly west of Bridgend town centre. The village takes its name from the Norman Lageles family who settled in the area. Buildings of note in the village include St ...

Bridgend County Borough Bridgend County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. The county borough has a total population of 139,200 people, and contains the town of Bridgend, after which it is named. I ...

, southern Wales. It is listed Grade 1 as a medieval church with its fabric, including timber roofs, mainly intact, and having group value with the churchyard cross and Cliff Cottage.

History

In 1180, William, Earl of Gloucester is recorded as having granted land in the area to William Lageles, from whom the village is thought to have got its name. The current church was built later, to replace the nearby church of St

Cewydd Saint Cewydd was a pre-congregational saint of Wales in the Early Middle Ages (6th century). He is known as the Welsh 'Rain Saint', like Medard in France, Gildas in Brittany and Swithin in England. It would appear that a pre-Christian rain da ...

, the site of which is known. The nave and chancel are believed to date to the late 13th and 14th centuries, and the southern porch and tower to the later medieval period. During the 16th century the church and the manor of Laleston belonged to

Margam Abbey Margam Abbey ( cy, Abaty Margam) was a Cistercian monastery, located in the village of Margam, a suburb of modern Port Talbot in Wales. History The abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Clairvaux by Robert, Earl of Gloucester ...

, and in 1522, the parishioners were given a lease on the

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

. At the Dissolution, Sir Rice Mansel purchased the manor. Those who officiated as parish priests or curates over the years included John Evans (died 1847) who later turned to Methodism. Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet, visited the church in 1847, and left a written account of the architecture.

Architecture

The church is built on a standard plan, with a west tower, nave and lower chancel. It has, probably incorrectly, been attributed to a 12th-century mason called "Lalys". The tower interior is in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The church underwent restoration by

John Prichard John Prichard (6 May 1817 – 13 October 1886) was a Welsh architect in the neo-Gothic style. As diocesan architect of Llandaff, he was involved in the building or restoration of many churches in south Wales. Personal history John Prichard wa ...

in 1871, and the stained glass windows, probably by Clayton and Bell, are from that decade.

Interior

The interior is limewashed, and features numerous engravings on the walls, dated to the 17th and 18th centuries. The chancel stalls, of oak, and the desk and pulpit date to 1958. William Clarke of Llandaff was hired for wood carvings in the sanctuary; he added the reredos in 1908. St David's Church became a Grade I listed building on 26 July 1963.

Memorials

Several graves of the Ben(n)et family of Laleston House (located close to the church), a family notable locally in the 17th and 18th centuries, are to be found in the church. In 1762, Thomas Bennet left a legacy of £52 10s for poor relief.

References

Bibliography

* {{Bridgend