Margam Abbey

St Mary’s Abbey Church at Margam, Neath Port Talbot, is a Grade I Church in Wales parish church occupying the surviving nave of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147, the only Cistercian nave in Wales still in regular use.

Overview

Cadw records that Robert of Gloucester, Earl of Glamorgan, granted land for a Cistercian abbey in 1147 on a site already marked by early Christian stones. Most of the twelfth-century nave survives as the parish church; the rest of the church and conventual buildings, rebuilt in Early English style under Abbot Gilbert about 1203–13, are ruined. After the Dissolution of 1536–7 Sir Rice Mansel retained the western six bays of the eight-bay nave as a parish church. Thomas Mansel Talbot funded a restoration completed by 1810; Theodore Talbot oversaw refurnishing in 1872–3. The west front retains Norman door and windows; aisles and east end are early nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival. The south chapel holds Renaissance Mansel chest tombs of 1611–31. Burne-Jones glass made by Morris & Co (1873) fills the west lights. Cadw listed the church at Grade I on 12 November 1952 (record 14148). The wider abbey is scheduled monument GM005.

The church stands at the edge of Margam Park, in the Diocese of Llandaff.

Further Information

• Cadw listed building 14148
• Margam Abbey
• Wikipedia: Margam Abbey