St. Mary's Priory Church

The Priory Church of St Mary is the parish church of Usk. Its origin was as the church of Usk Priory, a Benedictine nunnery founded by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in the twelfth century.

The site of the church shows no evidence of a pre-Conquest church, and the earliest religious building there may have been a Norman church associated with Usk Castle on the site of the present West nave. In the years before his death in 1176, Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke founded a Benedictine nunnery on the site. In the thirteenth century the North aisle was added as a place of worship for the people of the town, separated with a screen from the parts of the priory used exclusively by the nuns. In the fifteenth century, two two-storyed Perpendicular porches were added to the North and West aisles, the probable builder being Sir William Herbert, who was also building on a grand scale at nearby Raglan Castle.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s, the priory church became the parish church of the town. Extensive restoration and new building occurred in 1884 when Thomas Henry Wyatt created a sanctuary by roofing over the crossing space next to the tower and added a further bay to the nave. A further restoration was undertaken in 1899–1900, when G E Halliday inserted new windows and re-roofed the nave and aisle.

The gatehouse to the original Benedictine nunnery stands at the entrance to the churchyard.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Usk, United Kingdom

Details

Founded: c. 1135
Category: Religious sites in United Kingdom