All Saints

About

There has been a church here at least from the 800s, shown in parts of the porch, which has a 1300s carved roof. A tower was built in the 1400s as an addition to the original church. The nave and chancel were rebuilt 1872 - 1874 to serve the rapidly increasing population of the parish. The two Victorian architects responsible for the extensive alterations were Charles Buckeridge & John Loughborough Pearson. The alterations conformed to the requirements of the Tractarian or Oxford movement to bring back full dignity, ritual and colour to worship. Thus the Chancel is particularly large for a village church and can accommodate a large choir. The handsome tower and the porch are the only parts left of the old church. The existing edifice is much larger then the old one, and was built in the years 1873-4. The old church occupied only what is now the south aisle. Of the living, it having been a perpetual curacy, there are no institutions in the books at Llandaff till recent years. In 1718 the rectorial tithes were held by lease by Christopher Perkins of Pilston. In 1725 the lease was renewed to Cecilia Perkins, widow, described as the grandmother and guardian of Edward Perkins (an infant), elsest son and heir of Christopher Perkins, late of Pilston, esq., deceased. The old register books are lost. The existing ones begin in 1727. Among the burials in 1757 is, 30 April, a person with the unusual name of Golau Jones. This would more correctly be Goleu (light, lux).

The site of All Saints church is very old. There has been a church in this place for at least a thousand years, since part of the porch dates from the ninth century. The porch roof is fourteenth and fifteenth century and the tower — perhaps an addition to the original building — is fifteenth century. The sedilia in the south wall of the sanctuary was transferred from the old church, but the remainder of the building we see today — the nave, chancel and vestry — is the result of a rebuilding completed in 1874. This was done mainly through the generosity of the Mitchell's of Llanfrechfa Grange. A peal of six bells also dates from that period, as do most of the windows. Two bells were added to the peal in 1937 and all of the bells restored, re-hung and re-hallowed for the Millennium celebrations in 2000. Three of the churchyard yews are very old, the hollow tree nearest the church main gate being probably as old as the original church.

Preaching Cross

Outside in the churchyard is a Medieval Preaching Cross, still used at Rogationtide for the blessing of crops.