HISTORIC PLACES OF WORSHIP
A longer version of the report
Welsh Historic Places of Worship Conference
The Priory Centre, Abergavenny
12th November 2009
This conference was organised by Alex Glanville, Head of Property services for the Church in Wales.
The speakers, all experts in their field, were concerned with presenting an overview of their period, special interest or approach.
Dr Mark Rednap, curator of medieval antiquities at the National Museum of Wales, concentrated on the early medieval church and how much of its spiritual inheritance is accessible to us today. Churches of the 6th to 9th centuries are often characterised by eliptical churchyards, holy wells and cist grave cemeteries. Archaeological science can contribute to the understanding of these place of worship through pathological studies that uncover details about the contemporary health and demography of the local society. The social and political affiliations of the group may be evident from inscribed stones, carrying Roman or Ogham script or from artefacts that indicate a connection, even kinship, with Ireland and the continent of Europe. Dendrochronology has contributed information about sources of timber and the dating of buildings and community involvement in many of the research projects on the church buildings of Wales has built up local pride and a sense of place that is vital to the sustainability of Welsh heritage.
The Reverend Dr John Morgan Guy, author and director of the research project Imaging the Bible in Wales, pursued a similar theme through religious art and design as a response to the need to demonstrate religious truths. Since the medieval world was essentially and universally Christian and recognised no frontiers, the imagery of faith and liturgy was international. Works of art like carved fonts, intricate metal work like incense burners, chalices or patens might be made by goldsmiths in Herefordshire or Norway and the message could be equally apprehendedanywhere in the Christain world. By the beginning of the 15th century, increased devotion to the Virgin Mary in Wales is found in wall paintings and stained glass. At the same time representations of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ come to the fore. Dr Morgan Guy quoted a number of examples, the Ecce Homo from Betwys Gerfyl Goch, Clwyd, the reference to John 19 v.36 ‘A bone of him shall not be broken’ at Llangadwaladwr , Anglesey, and the painting, the abuse of Christ in the church of Llandeilo Talybont now restored, at St Fagans. The richness and diversity manifest in the imagery of the church led him to conclude that Wales in the middle ages enjoyed wealthy patronage and had strong links to the continent and was in the centre rather than is often supposed at the periphery of European spiritual and intellectual thought.
Professor John Harvey, from Aberystwyth presented an analytical view of the Chapel movement in Wales between the 17th and 20th centuries. He explored the principles that regulated non-conformist patterns of worship based on Biblical text. He showed how parallels were drawn between Wales and the Holy Land. The concept of Gwlad Canaan supposes that the twelve tribes of Israel had their equivalents in Wales, so that the names given to chapels are the place names of the Holy Land or in imitation of the Temple of Solomon. He summed up the distinctive features of Welsh chapel architecture as simplicity of design, eclecticism of style and religious aspiration
Delegates were offered a change of perspective with the next speaker. Robert Dunning, representing the Diocese of Bath and Wells took a view of worship in Wales from the Land of Summer across the Bristol Channel. Communication between the West Country and Wales across the ages from the 5th and 6th centuries onwards was his theme. The Age of the Saints and their exploits and journeys are commemorated on both sides of that channel. The connection persisted into the 15th century and later. Welsh ordinands went to be ordained in Somerset and the 16th century Bishop Barlow moved from the see of St Asaph to St Davids to Bath and Wells. There was trade too, Somerset churches bought timber from Wales and exported Dundery and Bath stone in return with the craftsmen to handle these materials.
Julian Orbach, co-author of the Pembrokeshire volume of the Pevsner Buildings of Wales, led the afternoon session. Since his subject was ‘ The Victorian Churches of Wales’, the focus was mainly on the urban areas and the growing industrial south and southeast of the Principality. A comparison of building costs town with country reflected changes in the demographic structure of Wales. Following Pugin, Gilbert Scott and the Oxford movement, much of 19th century church design looked towards the Gothic and neo-Norman for inspiration but the results were sometimes wonderful. The stained glass in the churches, very often under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement he found particularly good and often in unexpected places.
The two final papers were technical. They addressed the problems of conservation and funding. Sir Trevor Morris demonstrated St Mary’s Priory, Abergavenny, as an example of ‘best practice’. The message from Trevor Thorpe, of CADW was ‘ Maintenance Matters’.
Conclusion. This was a useful conference. It opened up the whole landscape of places of worship throughout Wales. It was descriptive and very interesting but did not discuss how to extend church use and appreciation at the present day. The churches of Wales have drawn people of all faiths and no faith as pilgrims to centres like St Davids and to the smallest places of worship hidden in the countryside for at least a thousand years are an integral part of the pride of the nation. It is to be hoped that future conferences on this theme will address projects to foster the use of these traditional centres of faith and worship in the everyday lives and spirituality of Welsh people of the 21st century.