St Peter's Church

It is not known whether an older, pre-Norman church originally stood on the site of current St Peter's Church, but it lies within the site of Roman Moridinum, inside the presumed west gate of the Roman walls. The church, if founded soon after the construction of the Norman castle, was located midway between the castle and the monastic settlement of Llandeulyddog, which is known to have existed before the Norman Conquest.

St Peter's Church is recorded as being transferred to Battle Abbey between 1107 and 1125. The current church building probably dates from later than this, with the nave and chancel dating to the 13th or 14th century. The south aisle and north transept possibly date to the late 14th century. The tower was rebuilt a century after that and a porch added at the same time. The nave and chancel were raised and largely rebuilt during the 16th century.

During the Tudor dissolution of the 1500s St Peter's became the property of the Crown. The Consistory Courts of the Chancellor of the Diocese of St Davids took place at the church and Bishop Robert Ferrar was tried here in 1555.

Until the nineteenth century, St Peter's was the only church in Carmarthen. This changed with the opening of St David's Church in the late 1830s. Repairs and restorations took place during the 19th-century and the current clock was added to the tower in 1903/4.

Architecture

St Peter's is claimed to be the largest church in Wales and the longest nave in the diocese. The church walls are built from rubble stone with slate roofs. Within the tower there are eight bells, four of which are the original bells cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester in 1722. The south porch was converted into a war memorial chapel in 1969, its door replaced with a pointed window. The main entrance to the church is via the door at the base of the tower.

The main body of the church consists of a long nave and chancel, separated from the south aisle by five arched bays. The hammerbeam roofs were replaced by Buckingham Palace architect, John Nash, in 1785, but these were replaced again in 1861 as part of the mid-nineteenth-century restorations. Many of the windows were replaced in 1846, or altered during the 1860s.

There are a large number of important tombs and memorials inside the church. The tomb of Rhys ap Thomas, reputed to have made the fatal blow to King Richard III, is located inside the church.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Saint Peter's Street 11, Carmarthen, United Kingdom

Details

Founded: 13th century
Category: Religious sites in United Kingdom