Church of St Mary - Bell Tower - Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.
N 51° 26.056 W 003° 26.296
30U E 469535 N 5698209
The village of St Mary Church (Llanfair) is named after the parish Church. The Church dominates the centre of the Village. The Norman Church originally built in the 13th century, Has a bell tower with a ring of four bells.
Waymark Code: WMK3TC
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/08/2014
Views: 1
The Medieval Church of St. Mary, is located in an overgrown spinney, at the centre this tiny village.
The bell tower at St. Mary Church, has four bells, which await restoration.
This Parish church of St Mary is part of 'The Church in Wales' in the Rectorial Benefice and Parish of Cowbridge, in the Dioceses of Llandaff. One of six dioceses in Wales.
The Church in Wales is made up of over 900 parishes. If you live in Wales, you will live in a parish. Each parish covers a specific geographic area and is looked after by a cleric assigned to it. Each Parish may have several church's. There are 11 medieval churches in this parish.
"The Church's medieval origin is evidenced by the Norman door and the font and by the fact that in the churchyard there is a calvary of three steps surmounted by the socket stone of a medieval Latin cross. The Church has an unusual chancel because it weeps to the south, whereas normally weeping chancels angle towards the north.
The fact that the Church is dedicated to Mary (Mair in Welsh) confirms that the Church was built by the Normans following their successful conquest of large parts of South Wales in the 11th and 12th centuries. Other Vale villages and their churches, such as St Athan, were named after the Irish saints (Tathan) who first brought Christianity to the area around the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Other local churches were dedicated to the Welsh saints such as St. Docco or Dochau (Llandough) or St Illtyd (Llantwit Major). It is likely that the Norman Church replaced an earlier Celtic foundation." text Source: (
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