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Church of The Holy Martyrs, Mathry

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NPRN403060
Map ReferenceSM83SE
Grid ReferenceSM8793032000
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPembrokeshire
Old CountyPembrokeshire
CommunityMathry
Type Of SiteCHURCH
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Church of the Holy Martyrs is situated on a hilltop within a rectilinear churchyard. The churchyard is nuclear to a number of radial boundaries, represented by roads, routeways and field boundaries, and possibly lies within a very large outer enclosure or concentric enclosures delineated by current field boundaries and cropmarks (although the apparent enclosure/s could simply be field boundaries mirroring the contours of the hill). Undated cist burials were recorded near the churchyard in the early 18th century and possible cists have been observed immediately east of the churchyard during the 20th century. The site and probable location was mentioned in the Llandaff Charters, which records a gift of land to St Teilo. During the 12th century the benefice, known as `Golden Prebend? was the most important prebend of St Davids Cathedral. An roman-letter and ogham inscribed and incised stone, Mathry 1 (NPRN 276030), stands in the porch and is thought to derive from the site. Two 7th-9th century cross-incised stones (NPRNs 423412 and 423414) have been moved to the churchyard from elsewhere in the parish. The site is also associated with the legend of the `seven sainted men of Mathry' (associated with the so-called `waterman? disciples of St Teilo), to whom the church is dedicated.

The form of the pre-1865 church is not known. According to Fenton, the church of his day was `formerly dignified with a steeple, serving for a landmark to mariners, from its situation on this conspicuous eminence, an exposure that proved the means of its destruction, it being thrown down in a storm'. The church was entirely rebuilt in 1865-1868, in the same location as its predecessor but retaining nothing from its earlier fabric. The current church is a Grade 2 listed building (LB 12936), constructed to the designs of R. Kyrke Pensonin in Early English style of grey snecked limestone rubble stone with grey stone dressings. It consists of 3-bayed nave, 1-bayed chancel, 2-storeyed south tower and north vestry.

Sources include:
Cadw, Listed Buildings Database
Cambria Archaeology, 2000, Pembrokeshire Churches, gazetteer, 48
Cambria Archaeology, 2003, Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites Project, Pembrokeshire gazetteer

N Vousden, 11 October 2018