St Mary's Church, also called St Mary Virgin Church, is a

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

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 ...

Caldicot, Monmouthshire Caldicot () is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. The town is located between Chepstow and the city of Newport, Wales, Newport. The site adjoins the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels, Caldicot Levels, on the nor ...

, Wales. There is evidence that the church has pre-

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

foundations; however, the earliest part of the building dates from the 14th century. It is a Grade I

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 ...

History

There are records that there was a church at this location before the

Norman conquest of Wales The Norman invasion of Wales began shortly after the Norman conquest of England under William the Conqueror, who believed England to be his birthright. Initially (1067–1081), the invasion of Wales was not undertaken with the fervour and purpose ...

as it is mentioned in

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

and by a charter from

King John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

however there is nothing surviving in the current church building from that period. This is reportedly because of Augustinian canons from

Llanthony Secunda Llanthony Secunda Priory was a house of Canons regular#Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, Augustinian canons in the parish of Hempsted, Gloucestershire, England, situated about south-west of Gloucester Castle in the City of Gloucester. It was fo ...

visited and built the church on top of the older church that was dedicated to

St Bride Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (; Classical Irish: ''Brighid''; ; ) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hag ...

dating from around AD 900 at the behest of Walter of Gloucester after the construction of

Caldicot Castle Caldicot Castle () is an extensive stone medieval castle in the town of Caldicot, Monmouthshire, in southeast Wales, built near the site of Harold Godwinson's former Saxon castle by the Norman earls of Hereford from about 1100.

. The earliest part of the church is the base of the tower, which comes from the 14th century, along with 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 ...

and

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

, which was part of an enlargement programme at the time. The tower was not fully completed until the 16th century. In the 1850s, the 15th-century north aisle was rebuilt by

Henry Woodyer Henry Woodyer (1816–1896) was an English architect, a pupil of William Butterfield and a disciple of A. W. N. Pugin and the Ecclesiologists. Life Woodyer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, in 1816, the son of a successful, highly resp ...

, as well as most of the stained glass windows being replaced. In 1905, the chancel was refitted and many of the Victorian additions were changed.

Modern history

The church was granted Grade I listed status in 1955, with the reason for it being listed given as "...a fine medieval church with interesting Victorian restorations and additions." It was used as a location for the filming of the 2002 film '' Plots with a View''.

References

{{coord, 51.5941, N, 2.7475, W, source:wikidata, display=title Grade I listed churches in Monmouthshire Caldicot Caldicot, Monmouthshire