Oystermouth Church of All Saints
Has been described as a Possible Fortified Ecclesiastical site
There are major building remains
| Name | Oystermouth Church of All Saints |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Glamorgan |
| Modern Authority | Swansea |
| 1974 Authority | West Glamorgan |
| Community | Mumbles |
Oystermouth church is first mentioned in a documentary reference in 1141 when Maurice de Londres received the income of the church. The church was restored in the Victorian period. It occupies a quadrangular churchyard terraced out from the hillside overlooking the sea about 0.5m from Oystermouth Castle. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)
The church is first mentioned in 1141 and was probably built on the site of a Roman villa. The church was sketched by P J de Loutherbourg in 1800 and consisted of nave, chancel, W tower and a porch attached to it. According to Stephen Glynne, who visited in 1836, the windows were mostly Perpendicular. The nave had an E gallery from 1820 and a W gallery from 1835. Later in the C19 a N aisle and a new N porch were added, and in 1873 an organ chamber and vestry were added to the aisle by R K Penson. During this period the chancel arch was also altered. In 1915 the N aisle was demolished and a new church was erected by L W Barnard, architect of Cheltenham, in which the medieval nave is now the S aisle while the chancel became a new Lady Chapel.
The church is composed of an 'old church' on the S side, consisting of a W tower with a C19 porch on its N side, and a nave and a lower chancel that are now the S aisle and Lady Chapel. On the N side is the 'new church' of 1915, comprising nave and chancel under a single roof, a shallow N aisle and a low projection against the E end. The old church is of rubble stone with a renewed slate roof behind C19 coped gables. The Lady Chapel has 3 stepped lancets of the C13 but re-set in the C19. In the S wall is a C19 2-light window to the R under shouldered lintel and relieving arch. A doorway with 2-centred head and ribbed C19 door is L of centre, and at the L end is a lancet. The short E return wall of the S aisle has a single lancet. The S wall of the S aisle has windows of various dates. To the L of centre is a blocked medieval doorway under a 2-centred arch
To its L are two C19 2-light windows with geometrical tracery (one with a trefoil the other a quatrefoil in the head). To the R of the doorway is a late C13 or C14 cusped lancet, then a square-headed C16 window of 3 cusped lights with hood mould and label stops, and further R a C19 Perpendicular 3-light window with hood mould and foliage stops. The 2-stage tower is unbuttressed and has a shallow projecting turret offset to the R in the S wall and breaking through a string course between the stages. The S wall has stair lights in the turret, a clock below the parapet, a narrow window above the string course in the ringing chamber and a narrow belfry window with louvres. The W wall has a similar belfry window. The W window is 3 cusped lights under a square head, while the W door has a 2-centred head and C19 boarded door with strap hinges. An impost band continues around the S face. The N wall has a narrow opening above the porch and 2 simple belfry windows flanking a round black clock face above an engraved tablet commemorating the gift of the clock by Francis Tippins in 1875. The porch abuts the N side of the tower and has a 3-light W window with cusped heads, to the R of which is a projecting 2-stage turret, of which the upper stage turns polygonal under a pyramidal roof of stone slabs. The turret has a narrow doorway in the W wall, similar to the tower W doorway, and a small window above under a shouldered lintel. In the N wall is a lancet. The N wall of the porch has a doorway under a lancet arch and a hood mould with large head stops. Double doors have scrolled strap hinges. The 'new church' is in Perpendicular style, of snecked, rock-faced stone with lighter Bath stone dressings, and a slate roof behind coped gables. The nave and chancel have eaves cornices incorporating 4-leaf flowers interspersed with grotesque heads. Three clerestorey windows each have 4 cusped lights. The E end has a parapet to the gable with a big 9-light window. Below it is a projecting vestry, its roof hidden behind a plain parapet. It has 3 mullioned windows in the E wall, a similar window and arched doorway with ribbed door in the S wall. The vestry also projects on the N side of the chancel, where there is a similar doorway with ribbed door, but flanked by 1-light windows all under a single hood mould. On the N side are stone steps to a crypt below the N transept. The N and S walls of the chancel both have shallow set-back corbelled shafts and a single 3-light transomed window. The transept has a 3-light N window above a 3-light square-headed crypt window, both with hood moulds. The embattled N aisle has oversized gargoyles. At the L end is a 2-centred moulded doorway with ribbed door and hood mould, flanked by cusped lancets. Further R are two 4-light windows. The W wall of the nave has a set-back N buttress with gablet. Above the apex of the W window is an attached shaft standing on a corbel, as if intended to be carried up as a pinnacle but cut off by the moulded coping of the parapet. The W window is 5 stepped lancets, and L of the porch is a square-headed 3-light window with hood mould. The aisle has a 2-light geometrical W window. (Listed Building Report)
Not scheduled
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law
Historic Wales CADW listed database record number
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SS616880 |
| Latitude | 51.5737991333008 |
| Longitude | -3.99786996841431 |
| Eastings | 261670 |
| Northings | 188000 |
