St Donat's Church, St Donats, is thought to be a twelfth century structure with fourteenth to fifteenth century additions. The chancel arch is Norman and the base of the tower is believed to be of fourteenth century. It was restored early the early twentieth century.
It has stone walls with slate roofs and consists of a nave with a north porch, chancel with a north-west chapel, and a south-west tower. There are perpendicular windows and the Norman chancel arch is semi-circular. There is a circular Norman font. The sixteenth century Lady Chapel was converted to the Stradlinge Chapel later in the same century. Three unusual painted panels featuring portraits of three members of the Stradlinge family, dated c1590, were stolen from the chapel in 1991. Although subsequently recovered, they are now Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales.
Associated with:
Churchyard cross (Nprn307529)
Old Rectory (Nprn19534).
Sources include:
CADW listed buildings database
RCAHMW Wallpaintings Database. 2004.09.13/RCAHMW/SLE
Additional information from Pevsner, 'Glamorgan', 1995, pp557-8
RCAHMW AP955056/55; 955057/41-4
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021), pp. 230–33.
RCAHMW 2022