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

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 ...

, Wales. It was designated 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 ...

in 1963. The church is the lead church of the Netherwent Ministry Area, led by Rev Daniel Frett, which administers to a population of around 32,000.

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 664 or 682. He died in one of two devastating plagues that happened in 664 and in 682. Little else is known of his reig ...

, the last Welsh ruler to call himself

King of Britain There have been 13 British monarchs since the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland on 1 May 1707. England and Scotland had been in personal union since 24 March 1603; while the style, "King of Great Britain" fi ...

, who died of the plague in 664 AD. The church was subsequently dedicated to

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

, until the mid-nineteenth century restoration, when it was rededicated to St Mary. 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 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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

which display "ferocious gargoyles and pinnacles." The interior contains 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 in Monmouthshire