---
title: "St Mary the Virgin, Abbeycwmhir"
description: "Located in Abbeycwmhir, Powys. Built 1865-66; replacing a C17 church. Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. Grade II*. French High Gothic Revival style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church in Wales","Powys","Abbeycwmhir","Radnorshire","Grade II*","Gothic Revival","French Gothic","J W Poundley","David Walker"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-virgin-abbeycwmhir"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:09:37.158Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-09T12:31:23.762Z"
location: "Abbeycwmhir, Powys"
country: "Wales"
county: "Powys"
town: "Abbeycwmhir"
address: "Abbeycwmhir, Powys, LD1 5RP"
postcode: "LD1 5RP"
built: "1865-66; replacing a C17 church"
consecrated: "1866"
architect: "J W Poundley and David Walker"
denomination: "Church in Wales"
dedications: ["Mary"]
diocese: "Swansea and Brecon"
grade: "II*"
style: "French High Gothic Revival"
materials: "Snecked rock-faced stone with red sandstone banding; banded slate roofs"
openingHours: "Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church."
parish: "Abbey Cwmhir"
listEntryUrl: "https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=9346"
gridReference: "SO 053 713"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Mary the Virgin, Abbeycwmhir

St Mary's is a Grade II* Church in Wales parish church in the centre of Abbeycwmhir, Powys, in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon.

## Overview

Cadw records a church of 1865-66 by J. W. Poundley, Montgomeryshire county surveyor, and David Walker of Liverpool, replacing a seventeenth-century church. The principal benefactor was Miss Mary Philips, for whose family the same architects designed the adjacent Hall. The design is French High Gothic: nave with a lower, narrower chancel, south porch-tower with spire, north-east organ chamber and north-west vestry. Walls are snecked rock-faced stone with red sandstone banding and patterned arch heads; the slate roof has three bands of lighter grey slates. A rainwater head on the north side is dated 1866. The two-stage porch-tower has a sculpted Ascension in the tympanum and a freestone octagonal spire with a belvedere. Windows have geometrical tracery; the west window is three-light with cusped wheel tracery and the east end a polygonal apse.

The nave has a four-bay scissor-truss roof on foliage corbels. A stone screen base carries a brass plaque commemorating consecration in 1866. The chancel has a boarded polygonal wagon roof, decorative floor tiles and a Caen stone reredos of the Last Supper in thirteenth-century French style, with mosaic panels of the Agnus Dei and Pelican of Piety. A grave slab of about 1200 to Mabli, an abbot of Cwmhir, excavated from the abbey in 1824-25, is reset in the nave. Chancel glass is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne; the west window is by Clayton and Bell.

## Further Information

- [Cadw listed building 9346](https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=9346)
- [British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary, Abbey Cwmhir](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300009346-church-of-st-mary-abbey-cwmhir)
- [Coflein: St Mary's Church, Abbey Cwmhir](https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/403043)