St David, Whitchurch
St David, Whitchurch
St David’s is a Grade II Church in Wales parish church in the hamlet of Whitchurch near Solva, Pembrokeshire, in the Diocese of St Davids and the Greater Dewisland Local Ministry Area.
- Location
- Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire
- Country
- Wales
- County
- Pembrokeshire
- City / town
- Whitchurch
- Address
- Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire, SA62 6UB
- Postcode
- SA62 6UB
- Built
- 13th or 14th century; heavily restored 1872–74
- Architect
- C E Buckeridge; completed by J L Pearson
- Denomination
- Church in Wales
- Dedication
- David
- Diocese
- St Davids
- Parish
- Whitchurch
- Grade
- II
- Style
- Medieval restored in Gothic Revival
- Materials
- Rubble stone with purple Caerbwdy stone dressings; small graded slates and red terracotta ridge
- Grid reference
- SM 799 254
- Opening hours
- Always open.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas
Overview
Cadw records a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century parish church, heavily restored in 1872–74 to plans by C. E. Buckeridge executed by J. L. Pearson after Buckeridge’s death in 1873. Fabric is rubble stone with purple Caerbwdy stone dressings, small graded slates and a red terracotta ridge. The plan is nave, chancel and north chapel, with a coped west bellcote. All openings are nineteenth-century and framed in purple stone. The nave has a scissor-truss rafter roof; the chancel has a panelled wagon roof. A plain octagonal medieval font stands on a nineteenth-century circular base. The church is recorded from 1291, when it belonged to the Cistercians; pre-restoration accounts mention a timber bellcote and timber south porch.
The parish site notes that for much of the nineteenth century the population lived at Solva, distant from Whitchurch; a schoolroom in Solva was licensed for worship in 1841, and a church was built in Solva in 1879. In the churchyard, south of the church, is a low table tomb to Henry Whiteside (d. 1826), designer of the Smalls lighthouse.