Lychgate at Malpas Church

Cadw's description

Location

Malpas Church is set back from Malpas Road, entered via the lychgate, prominently located on the roadside.

History

Built 1850 and very likely designed by John Prichard, Diocesan architect to Llandaff, who was rebuilding the church 1849-50. Erected in memory of Henrietta Stanwell, who died in 1850. Due to road widening, the structure was resited further east. Malpas Church was the site of a Cluniac Cell, belonging to Montacute Priory, Somerset. The style of both lychgate and church is neo-Norman, a fashionable style of the 1840s, promoted by G.E. Hamilton’s ‘Designs for Rural Churches’ of 1836. The style was short-lived however, as the growing Ecclesiological Movement concentrated on Gothic as the correct style for new churches. Prichard had already used the style at Llanfabon Church, Glamorgan in 1847.

Exterior

Constructed of red squared sandstone with Bathstone details and quoins. Pitched slate roof. Wide round arches facing W and E, with chevron detail. Hollow-chamfered hoodmouldings on carved animal headstops. Quarter-shafts set high up on corners. Modern metal gates. On the east face, at the top-right corner is a metal plaque: ‘To the beloved memory of Henrietta Stanwell, who died on the 2nd day of September 1850, and was buried in a vault within this churchyard. This lychgate was erected by her husband, brothers and sisters’.

Reason for designation

Listed as a rare mid C19 lychgate, built in the short-lived neo-Norman style. Group value with Malpas Church.