Church of St Wonnow

Cadw's description

Location

About 2.5km SW of Monmouth, close to Wonastow Court on the S side of the minor road between Monmouth and Dingestow. Screened from the road by trees, but a conspicuous and attractive feature of the view from the other side of the valley.

History

"The church has always gone with the manor, and the advowson and impropriation have descended with the manor." (Bradney) Medieval in origin, but largely restored and rebuilt 1863-5, in memory of Sir William 8th Baronet of Chevet and Dame Mary Milborne Swinnerton-Pilkington his wife. N porch added 1909, by Arthur Grove.

Exterior

A small but attractive church with a sturdy "dovecote-belfry" tower, a short nave, N porch and small chancel.
It is built of sandstone rubble brought to courses, with stone slate roofs. The tower, square on plan and of 3 internal stages plus a low wooden belfry stage, unbuttressed and sheer-walled, has a restored 2-centred-arched W window with flowing tracery and a hoodmould; a small carved niche above this; a small quatrefoil to the 3rd stage; and a squat stud-framed belfry with 5 wooden-louvred lights in each side, and a pyramidal roof. Its N and S sides each have a 1-light trefoil-headed window to the 1st stage, a small square-headed lancet to the 2nd and a small trefoil to to the 3rd. The nave, which clasps the E corners of the tower, has one square-headed window of cusped ogee-headed lights on the N side and 2 on the S side.
At the W end of the N side is a prominent gabled porch in Arts-and-Crafts Gothic style. This has a swept roof, a heftily double-chamfered 2-centred arched outer doorway, its springers "carved in low relief with a thrilling Annunciation" (Pevsner & Newman), a carved Virgin and Child in the apex of the gable, and simple wooden-bar gates with ramped top rails. Each side wall has a simple arched 2-light window. Inside, the wallplates have raised commemorative lettering including the date 1909, and the
inner doorway, which has a single broad chamfer, is furnished with a darkened softwood door in Perpendicular style, with vertical panels which have Arts-and-Crafts carving to the heads.
The chancel has a square-headed E window of 3 ogee-headed cusped lights, one 2-light window in similar style in each side wall, and a Tudor-arched priest doorway in the N side.

Interior

In the nave, lightweight hammerbeam roof trusses, simple C19 benches, and a hatchment of George Milborne Esq. The chancel arch is 2-centred, with 2 orders of wave moulding, and contains a delicately-designed rood screen (with rood) in Perpendicular style, made in 1913 by G.E.Halliday, who also designed the chancel reredos, which is wooden and full-width, in Perpendicular style with pinnacles (etc). On the S side of the chancel is a very large standing wall monument to George Milborne
(d.1637): in Renaissance style, with a large strap-work apron, a deep plinth containing kneeling figures in relief (4 sons to the left, 7 daughters to the right), and free-standing Corinthian columns and a dentilled entablature framing a large panel presumably intended for a recumbent effigy but now only with some strap-work decoration at the top. Stained glass: two S windows of the nave, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1893 by Kempe; E window of the Virgin and Child, 1903, by Comper.

Reason for designation

Included as a church of medieval origin, having important historical associations with Wonastow Court; with a fine Arts-and-Crafts porch, and an important Renaissance monument.