Church of St Mary - Bell Tower - Pennard, Gower, Wales.
N 51° 34.757 W 004° 04.301
30U E 425741 N 5714790
Pennard church is dedicated to St.Mary - A medieval church from the 13 century, with many interesting features, including the unique bell tower, with a two bells installed in 1847. The Church located in Pennard, on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales.
Waymark Code: WMKEFD
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/31/2014
Views: 3
The Church of St Mary is dating back to the fourteenth century with some survivals from the original thirteenth century church, which was located near the castle and became overwhelmed by sand, and restored in 1847.
"Despite its appearance the Tower is integral with the West wall and quite distinct from the other church towers in the Gower. It has an embattled parapet on a corbelled table, but it is the unusual successive increases in the width of this Tower, that make it unique.
There are two bells. One is inscribed Pennard Parish with the Logo W(bell)E, and the date 1737. the other inscribed Rowland Daukin Esq. W(bell)E, 1737." Text Source: From a plaque displayed in the Church.
St.Mary's church is open to visitors, and for prayer, all year during daylight hours. Free to enter but donations are appreciated.
"The origin of Pennard Church is a mystery. And the heart of the mystery is that there are two Pennard churches: a ruined one on the golf course near the castle; and our much-loved St Mary’s a little over a mile away. Why are there two? How do they relate to each other? And how did one come to be a ruin? No one knows the answers to these questions. We believe that answers might have been in the records of All Souls College Oxford at one time but certain documents and deeds have disappeared and so the mystery is likely to stay unsolved.
What we know for sure is that the people of Pennard fell on hard times in the early sixteenth century. A number of letters concerning non-payment of taxes have survived from this period. It seems that drifts of sand covered fields and houses around the now-ruined church and impoverished the people. We also know that the present church building became the official parish church at about this time… in 1532.
For a long time it was assumed that the present church was built at that time… to replace the old one but a local historian, Luke Toft, has shown that there are problems with this theory. The main problem is that there are a lot of 13th century features in the current building… specifically: small lancet windows; “dog-tooth” decoration; and an ‘aumbry’ recess in the south wall of the chancel. So the present church is almost certainly a lot older than 16th Century.
It looks as though there were two church buildings in Pennard for hundreds of years.
The people of Pennard quite like the mysteries around their two churches. They make the parish more interesting and they certainly do not detract from the fact that Christians have been worshipping here for a very long time… certainly since 12th Century (when the Normans started keeping good records) and probably much longer… since the time of the Welsh Saints, in fact, 1,500 years ago." Text Source: (
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"St Mary's Church Pennard is now in the Parish of Three Cliffs [S468] comprising the Churches of St Illtyd, Ilston, St John Baptist, Penmaen, and St Nicholas, Nicholaston, and all are in the Benefice of Three Cliffs [S468], which is in the deanery and archdeaconry of Gower. It is no longer Pennard Parish but the Parish Church of St Mary's in the Parish of Three Cliffs. The Parish has a PCC, its status is historic, and the preferment is Vicar.
and is in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon." Text Source: (
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