The Church of St Mary stands in the centre of the village of

Magor Magor may refer to the following: ;Places * Magor, Monmouthshire, a village in Wales, United Kingdom * Magor with Undy, a community in Wales, United Kingdom * Magor Farm, a Romano-British villa near Illogan in Cornwall * Breton name for Magoar * C ...

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. It was designated a

Grade I listed building 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 ...

in 1963. The church is the lead church of the Magor Rectorial Benefice, led by Rev. Jeremy Harris, and administers to a population of around 12,000.

History and architecture

It is possible that the church was originally dedicated to

Cadwaladr Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (also spelled Cadwalader or Cadwallader in English) was king of Gwynedd in Wales from around 655 to 682 AD. Two devastating plagues happened during his reign, one in 664 and the other in 682; he himself was a victim of the ...

, the last Welsh ruler to call himself

King of Britain The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...

, who died of the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

in 664 AD. John Newman, in his 2000 ''Gwent/Monmouthshire'' volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, describes St Mary's as "one of the most ambitious churches in the county, though the ambitions were not all realised." It is in the Decorated style with a prominent, integral, tower. The church was originally dedicated to

St Leonard Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559), is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Hau ...

, until the mid-nineteenth century restoration. The porch, of the fourteenth/fifteenth centuries, has

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (si ...

which display "ferocious gargoyles and pinnacles." The interior contains interesting, nineteenth-century, stained glass, including ''The Good Shepherd'' by Kempe & Co of 1930–31. The churchyard is the burial place of Welsh composer

Mansel Thomas Mansel Treharne Thomas, (12 June 1909 – 8 January 1986) was a Welsh composer and conductor, who worked mainly in South Wales. He was one of the most influential musicians of his generation, known as a composer, conductor and adjudicator. He ...

(1909–1986). Next to the church stands The Procurator's House, a sixteenth-century house, now ruined, which belonged to the vicarage of Magor.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Magor, St Mary's Church Grade I listed churches in Monmouthshire Church in Wales church buildings