St Mary's church is set back from the east side of Malpas Road, within a large churchyard, entered via a prominent lychgate. It is a small but richly decorated Neo-Norman church built in 1849-50 to designs of architect John Pritchard as an elaborated copy on the old site of a twelfth-century Clunic cell, founded 1122, dissolved 1539. Remains of conventual buildings were noted 1849, and some indication of these is possibly preserved in the layout of the south-east churchyard wall.
The church is built of mauve and grey Old Red Sandstone with Bathstone dressings, slate roofs and stone parapets. It consists of four-bay nave and lower, two-bay chancel with north vestry, shafted doorway in west gable, and west bellcote with pyramidal roof of ashlar. The interior is wagon roofed with open timbers but is dominated by the large and elaborately enriched chancel arch mirroring its medieval predecessor. Fittings include a Neo-Norman font, a stone lectern standing on four shafts with Romanesque-style carved foliage, and twentieth-century pews. Stained glass includes works by George Rogers (1850 & 1855), Hardman (A.Brooks, 1864 & 1867), and Heaton, Butler & Bayne (1900).
Sources: extracts from Cadw Listing description; J.Newman, Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire (2000), pp.376-7.

RCAHMW, 27 March 2015