History

The church is of C13 origin, reputed to have been built between 1245 and 1265, and restored in 1878 by John Pritchard at the cost of £500, and the chancel rebuilt in 1891-4 by Waller & Son of Gloucester. It was a chapelry to the first St James' church Kenfig, which is now under the sand, and which is recorded in a charter of 1149-1183 as having been built c.1150. The tower may be an addition to a single cell building of c.1300

Exterior

Nave and chancel with a C19 N vestry, a square unbuttressed west tower with a W porch attached. The nave has 3 pairs of 3-light trefoil-headed windows on the S side only. The chancel has 3 trefoil-headed lights of C19 date set in the S extension under a continuation of the roof. Three cusped E lancets under an encompassing arch. Short W tower with a stair extension on the S, small rectangular openings and a crenellated parapet on corbels, incorporating small gables for the pitched tower roof. The gabled W porch has a hollow-chamfered stone W doorcase, probably C15, and oak door, and a blocked S door. The C19 N door to the vestry has a shouldered head.

Interior

Wide round-headed arch from the tower to the nave. Nave walls plastered, and 4-bay open timber roof, the four robust trusses being medieval or C17, with arch-braced collars carrying two tiers of purlins, the feet of the principals rising from within the walls. Chancel is raised by 2 steps, through a C19 arch, the inner arch order on corbels. Two-bay late C19 roof of a similar pattern to that of the nave. Rear-arch over E lancets. Encaustic tile floor. The organ chamber opens under an arch on the N, with the vestry to the E. A small light from the tower stair into the W of the nave, and a rectangular opening over the entrance door from porch to the tower.

Font: Norman, a handsome limestone tub decorated with 5 rows of scallops, and a rope moulding around the lip, said to have been brought from the early Church of St James, when it was overwhelmed.

Glass: E window of c.1920 by C Powell as a war memorial, and Nave S window by Frank Roper of Penarth.

Bell of 1644.

Monuments: 13 memorial slabs set into the wall plaster, all simply but elegantly lettered, ranging in date from 1696 to 1793, but one tablet of c.1820.
Nave, N wall: (a) Anne Thomas, Edward Thomas c.1896; (b) Segmental head with cut roses, Rees Thomas, Alice, d 1793, and 3 children; (c) Fielded tablet, with putto in shaped gable, to Elizabeth Yorwerth Pinho, d.1742; (d) Round-headed slab, to Margaret Yorwerth, d. 1781. S wall: (e) David Edmond d.1765 and Elizabeth Beynon d.1784; (f) Tall fielded panel set in ogee moulded frame, to Elisabeth Williams of Sker, d.1722. In chancel: (g) Richard Lowther d.1698, his arms in a semicircular top; (h) Evan Lyddon, portreeve, d.1727; (i) Tablet to John Morgan, clerk, d.1820; (j) Round top stone, Evan Waters, d.1694, and Anne; (k) Shaped top, Charles Aylward, d.1728; (l) Richard Waters of Cornely, d.1698; and behind the organ, (m) Richard .... (obscured). In the porch two large slabs of polished stone, believed to be originally altar slabs.

Reasons for Listing

Included at Grade II* as a building of substantially medieval fabric with an unusual early W porch, and a remarkable font.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)