Church of St Mary Magdalen, Pyle with Kenfig.

Cadw's description

Location

The church stands in a raised curvilinear churchyard on a high prominence above the former site of Kenfig, by the junction of the side road into Maudlam village.

History

The church is of C13 origin, reputed to have been built between 1245 and 1265, and restored in 1878 by John Pritchard at the cost of £500, and the chancel rebuilt in 1891-4 by Waller & Son of Gloucester. It was a chapelry to the first St James' church Kenfig, which is now under the sand, and which is recorded in a charter of 1149-1183 as having been built c.1150. The tower may be an addition to a single cell building of c.1300.

Exterior

Nave and chancel with a C19 N vestry, a square unbuttressed west tower with a W porch attached. The nave has 3 pairs of 3-light trefoil-headed windows on the S side only. The chancel has 3 trefoil-headed lights of C19 date set in the S extension under a continuation of the roof. Three cusped E lancets under an encompassing arch. Short W tower with a stair extension on the S, small rectangular openings and a crenellated parapet on corbels, incorporating small gables for the pitched tower roof. The gabled W porch has a hollow-chamfered stone W doorcase, probably C15, and oak door, and a blocked S door. The C19 N door to the vestry has a shouldered head.

Interior

Wide round-headed arch from the tower to the nave. Nave walls plastered, and 4-bay open timber roof, the four robust trusses being medieval or C17, with arch-braced collars carrying two tiers of purlins, the feet of the principals rising from within the walls. Chancel is raised by 2 steps, through a C19 arch, the inner arch order on corbels. Two-bay late C19 roof of a similar pattern to that of the nave. Rear-arch over E lancets. Encaustic tile floor. The organ chamber opens under an arch on the N, with the vestry to the E. A small light from the tower stair into the W of the nave, and a rectangular opening over the entrance door from porch to the tower.

Font: Norman, a handsome limestone tub decorated with 5 rows of scallops, and a rope moulding around the lip, said to have been brought from the early Church of St James, when it was overwhelmed.

Glass: E window of c.1920 by C Powell as a war memorial, and Nave S window by Frank Roper of Penarth.

Bell of 1644.

Monuments: 13 memorial slabs set into the wall plaster, all simply but elegantly lettered, ranging in date from 1696 to 1793, but one tablet of c.1820.
Nave, N wall: (a) Anne Thomas, Edward Thomas c.1896; (b) Segmental head with cut roses, Rees Thomas, Alice, d.1793, and 3 children; (c) Fielded tablet, with putto in shaped gable, to Elizabeth Yorwerth Pinho, d.1742; (d) Round-headed slab, to Margaret Yorwerth, d.1781. S wall: (e) David Edmond d.1765 and Elizabeth Beynon d.1784; (f) Tall fielded panel set in ogee moulded frame, to Elisabeth Williams of Sker, d.1722. In chancel: (g) Richard Lowther d.1698, his arms in a semicircular top; (h) Evan Lyddon, portreeve, d.1727; (i) Tablet to John Morgan, clerk, d.1820; (j) Round top stone, Evan Waters, d.1694, and Anne; (k) Shaped top, Charles Aylward, d.1728; (l) Richard Waters of Cornelly, d.1698; and behind the organ, (m) Richard .... (obscured). In the porch two large slabs of polished stone, believed to be originally altar slabs.

Reason for designation

Included at Grade II* as a building of substantially medieval fabric with an unusual early W porch, and a remarkable font.