St John's Church was the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

for

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when the priory church of St Mary's Priory became the parish church. The church then became a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

and is now part of a

masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

. The only parts of the church that still remain are the tower and part of the

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 ...

History

The church was the oldest church in Abergavenny, with the tower and nave dating from the 14th century. The bell in the tower was rung to signal the start of the

curfew A curfew is an order that imposes certain regulations during specified hours. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to remain indoors during the evening and nighttime hours. Such an order is most often issued by public authorit ...

when the town gates were closed at night. When the nearby

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

priory (dedicated to

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

) was dissolved in 1536 it only had a prior and four monks and the nave of the priory church was already being used by the people of the town. The people petitioned

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

to make St Mary's the parish church, which happened in 1539. In 1542 or 1543, St John's was seized by Henry VIII to become the

King Henry VIII Grammar School King Henry VIII Grammar School, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, was one of a series of schools founded during the Reformation in England and Wales in 1542 from property seized from monasteries and religious congregations. In this case, a school tha ...

which was funded by

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s (taxes) previously paid to St Mary's Priory, and also the tithes from the

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

Badgeworth Badgeworth is a village and civil parish in the Tewkesbury district of Gloucestershire, England, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,206, increasing to 1,286 at the 2011 census. ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, previously paid to another Benedictine priory dedicated to St Mary at Usk. The school was the first grammar school in the county. The embattled tower was rebuilt , and was later described as "... a curious piece of antiquarianism for the mid C18". The building continued as a school until a new building opened in Pen-y-pound in 1998. In 1899 local architect E. A. Johnson (who was a

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

), converted the old school into a masonic lodge, known as the ''Second Philanthropic Lodge''. In 1902 the lodge was renamed to ''St. John's Lodge'', and is now known simply as Abergavenny Masonic Hall or Centre. The lodge holds four masonic certificates (given to new members) from an older (French) masonic lodge in Monk Street. The certificates were issued in 1813 and 1814 to French officers who were prisoners of war sent to Abergavenny. The lodge became a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 5 July 1952.

References

External links

OS map at British Listed Buildings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abergavenny, Saint John Saint John History of Monmouthshire Grade II* listed churches in Monmouthshire Former churches in Wales Masonic buildings in the United Kingdom 14th-century church buildings in Wales