Priory Church of St Mary, Abergavenny

Although the Norman building was built around 1070, a previous Iron Age, Roman or Post-Roman structure existed on the site. Archaeological surveys have found significant finds of Samian ware pottery, and a church named "The church of the Holy Rood" is known to have existed in the town, but its exact location is not known. The current structure was originally the church of the Benedictine Priory, established under Hamelin de Balun the first Norman holder of the title Lord Abergavenny, which in the 1090s became Baron Bergavenny. At this time it was a cell of the Abbey of Saint Vincent at Le Mans in France. Henry de Abergavenny was a prior here and later at Llandaff in the late 12th century…

The church is cruciform in layout and impressively large with a chancel and nave 172 ft in length. The central tower has ten bells. The church is mainly in the Decorated and Perpendicular Period architectural styles and was, like many churches, subjected to Victorian period refurbishment in the 19th century, with sadly little trace of the original Norman architecture surviving. The Norman baptismal font was rediscovered in the churchyard in the 19th century; it had been removed from the church in the 17th century by a local Baptist minister, John Abbot, on the grounds that he did not believe in infant baptism. The oaken choir stalls with carved misericords and carved lattice work backs,…