Priory Church of St Mary

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: Listed Grade I as an important historic church with Norman origins and surviving masonry, also especially notable medieval porches and roodscreen. History: There is no evidence of a pre-Conquest church here. Possibly the first church was associated with the nearby Castle, its site probably the present nave W of the crossing tower. Priory was a Benedictine Nunnery founded by Richard Strongbow de Clare between 1154 and 1170. The Priory Charter was an important element in the planning of the town of Usk. Nave and crossing tower date from this early period. N aisle added in C13 for use of local population and widened in C15. The moulded NE pier may indicate the division between the nun s E bay and people s 3 W bays of the N aisle. As can be seen from the holes, a screen formerly separated the nave from the N aisle. The fine porches may have been built by Sir William Herbert died 1469. Dissolution in 1536. Chancel destroyed. In early C19 the large N vestry accommodated the Grammar School and the Writing School. TH Wyatt in 1844 vaulted the crossing space of former tower as sanctuary and added extra W bay to nave. Gallery removed 1875. Further restoration by GE Halliday, diocesan architect of Llandaff, c 1900 when Perpendicular style N and S windows and ribbed and boarded waggon roofs to nave and aisle were restored. Fine organ was designed in 1862 for Llandaff Cathedral by Prichard and Seddon and installed as part of c1900 restoration. Exterior: Priory church with mainly Norman and Perpendicular masonry. Nave, wide N aisle, W and N porches, crossing tower, NE vestry wing. Built mainly of stone rubble with mostly smallscale ashlar dressings, ashlar porches and buttresses; slate roofs with moulded apex stones. Main approach is from NW. W elevation consi

From Cadw under OGL v3.