CHURCHES.
The church of 'Istrat Hafren',
recorded in dubious charters of c. 700 and c. 880,
has been identified with Tidenham: according to
the first charter Morgan ap Athrwys, King of
Glywyssing, granted the church to the bishopric
of Llandaff with an uncia of land between the sea
and 'Podum Ceuid', identified with Lancaut, and
the second charter records a confirmation of the
grant following lay encroachment. (fn. 87) No later record
has been found of a connexion between the parish
and Llandaff. The church of Tidenham with the
tithes and ½ hide of land was granted to Lire Abbey
by William FitzOsbern c. 1070. (fn. 88) A vicarage had
been ordained by the early 13th century, (fn. 89) and the
living has remained a vicarage.
Because Lire Abbey was an alien house the
advowson of the church was usually exercised in the
14th century by the Crown. (fn. 90) Henry V took full
possession of the rectory and advowson under the
Act of 1414 and granted them to his new foundation,
the Priory of Sheen; (fn. 91) Sheen retained them until
the Dissolution. (fn. 92) The Crown exercised the advowson in 1540 and 1554, but in 1561 and 1570 Francis
Shakerley presented by virtue of a lease from Sheen
Priory. (fn. 93) The advowson was granted with the
rectory to Thomas James in 1607; (fn. 94) his son
Alexander presented in 1628, the later Alexander
James in 1709, and Hester James with Anne and
William Jones in 1731. (fn. 95) The advowson was bought
c. 1767 by James Davis of Chepstow (fn. 96) who presented in 1769, (fn. 97) and it evidently descended with
the Tutshill Farm estate to Mary Burr, whose eldest
son Daniel Higford Daval Burr, later of Aldermaston
(Berks.), exercised it from 1839. (fn. 98) The advowson
had passed by 1889 to Higford Higford, and by
1910 to the Bishop of Gloucester (fn. 99) who remained
patron in 1969.
The church was valued at £13 6s. 8d. in 1291
with the vicar's portion at £6 13s. 4d.; there were
three other portions in the tithes, £3 6s. 8d. owned
by Tintern Abbey, £1 by Striguil Priory, and 4s. by
the Rector of Lancaut. (fn. 1) Tintern Abbey's portion
was apparently connected with the assarts made by
the abbey on the north-eastern boundary of Tidenham from which its Ashwell Grange estate was
formed; (fn. 2) the matter is obscure, however, for under
two recorded agreements, one also of 1291, the
tithes of the abbey's lands in the parish were to be
received by Tidenham church rather than by the
abbey. By the first agreement, which concluded a
dispute between the Vicar of Tidenham and Tintern
Abbey in the early 13th century, the abbey agreed
to pay one mark annually to Tidenham church for
the tithes of its cultivated land, assarts, and parkland
in the parish, and to pay tithes for any land it might
acquire there in the future; (fn. 3) by the second in 1291
Tintern Abbey agreed with Lire Abbey's proctor in
England to give to Lire Abbey the tithes of lands
they had inclosed at 'Hathoneshall' (probably
Ashwell), and also to grant ½ a. of land to Lire
instead of disputed tithes in a meadow in Tidenham. (fn. 4)
Tintern Abbey's portion in the tithes of Tidenham
was apparently represented by the tithes of certain
woods which in 1704 were said to be payable to
Ashwell Grange, (fn. 5) and perhaps by those claimed by
the Duke of Beaufort in 1844. (fn. 6) Striguil Priory's
portion was leased by the Crown in 1546 (fn. 7) and may
have been represented by the annual payment of
18s. which the vicar owed to the Crown in 1704. (fn. 8) In
1704 the vicarage included c. 5 a. of glebe, the small
tithes, and part of the hay tithe; cash payments
were being made for orchards, agistments, milch
cows, and calves, while the other small tithes were
paid in kind. (fn. 9) Under the inclosure award of 1815
the vicar received 104 a. on Tidenham Chase, later
known as Parson's Allotment, in place of his tithes
from the land inclosed. (fn. 10) In 1843 the vicar's remaining tithes were commuted for a corn-rent of £395. (fn. 11)
Commutation was opposed by the incumbent James
Burr who believed it to be sacrilegious and contrary
to scriptural teaching, and also regarded it as unjust
that the rent-charge should be pegged to the price
of corn since the tithes it replaced had come almost
entirely from pasture land. (fn. 12) The vicarage was valued
at £8 5s. 9d. in 1535 (fn. 13) and at £40 in 1650; (fn. 14) it was
worth £60 in 1750, (fn. 15) and £466 in 1856. (fn. 16)
There was a vicarage house containing three bays
of building in 1704. (fn. 17) The vicar, Somerset Jones,
who apparently lived at Stroat House, (fn. 18) had allowed
the vicarage to fall into disrepair by 1768, in spite
of the remonstrances of the patron James Davis. (fn. 19)
The vicarage was rebuilt by James Burr in 1842; (fn. 20)
it is a stone house with Gothic and Tudor details
having gables with decorative bargboards.
The benefice was frequently exchanged in the
14th and early 15th centuries; the parish had at least
eight vicars between 1391 and 1395. (fn. 21) Between 1517
and 1526 the vicar David ap Howell kept a mistress
by whom he had several children. (fn. 22) William Living,
presented in 1540, evidently had Protestant sympathies: in 1548 he was reported to have broken
windows in the church and thrown down a churchyard cross, while one of the churchwardens had sold
a censer and crucifix to raise money for church
repairs. Living was deprived, presumably for being
married, in 1554. (fn. 23) Edmund Arundel, described in
1584 as neither a graduate nor a preacher, (fn. 24) was
charged in 1576 with omitting perambulations, and
with preaching only two sermons and reading the
commination only once during the year. (fn. 25) Somerset
Jones (1731-69) was also Rector of Woolaston from
1745. (fn. 26) His successor William Seys, who gained a
local reputation as a sportsman, was also Vicar of
Chepstow and perpetual curate of St. Arvans (Mon.)
at his death in 1802. (fn. 27) John Armstrong, who was later
Bishop of Grahamstown, held the living from 1845
to 1854 (fn. 28) and introduced Oxford Movement reforms
arousing the opposition of some parishioners. (fn. 29)
In the 19th century places of worship were
provided for parishioners living at a distance from
the church. In 1833 a chapel dedicated to St. John
was built at Beachley; (fn. 30) it is a Gothic stone building,
cruciform in plan, with a plainly furnished interior.
The cost of the chapel was borne largely by James
Jenkins, owner of Beachley manor, while there were
also other subscribers and a grant from the Church
Building Society. (fn. 31) It was founded as a chapel of
ease to the parish church, but it had a separate
income from an endowment made by James Jenkins
and from surplice fees and pew rents; it had its own
burial ground (fn. 32) and was licensed for marriages in
1839. (fn. 33) In 1850 the chapel was constituted a perpetual curacy and assigned a separate ecclesiastical
district. (fn. 34) The right of nomination was vested in the
Vicar of Tidenham but in 1865 passed to the bishop. (fn. 35)
The income, to which had apparently been added
tithe rent-charges given up by the Vicar of Tidenham, (fn. 36) was only £50 in 1856. (fn. 37) The cure was
served from 1833 to c. 1853 by Charles Henry
Morgan of Tidenham House; (fn. 38) it then remained
vacant for a year or more owing to difficulties in
acquiring a house for the living, (fn. 39) but from 1855
there were resident perpetual curates. From 1905,
however, the living was held by the Vicar of Tidenham, (fn. 40) and in 1932 the two benefices were united. (fn. 41)
The residence for the curates, acquired in 1855,
stood north of the ferry pier; it was sold in 1920 (fn. 42)
and in 1969 was the Old Ferry Hotel.
in 1853 the needs of the growing population of
the Tutshill and Woodcroft area of the parish were
recognized by the building of a chapel on the road
between the two hamlets; (fn. 43) services had been held
in the school there since 1849. (fn. 44) The chapel,
dedicated to St. Luke, is a Gothic stone building
comprising a nave with a bellcot at the south-eastern
corner, a chancel, and a north aisle added in 1872. (fn. 45)
In 1850 the school at Tidenham Chase was licensed
for services, (fn. 46) and in 1888 the chapel of St. Michael,
comprising nave and chancel in Gothic style, was
built on the chase; it was financed by the Revd.
Fielding Palmer of Eastcliff who had officiated at
the services in the schoolroom for several years
previously. (fn. 47) In the late 19th and early 20th centuries
services were also held at the halls built by the
Morgan family at Woodcroft and Stroat. (fn. 48) In 1969
the chapels at Beachley, Tutshill, and the Chase
were still in regular use for services.
There were several small chapels at Tidenham in
the Middle Ages. That found earliest recorded stood
on a shelf of rock in the Severn at the south end of
the Beachley peninsula and was accessible only at
low tide. Its dedication, which appears in varying
forms in medieval references, is open to doubt but
the attribution to the Welsh saint Twrog seems
most likely to be the correct one. (fn. 49) The chapel
presumably originated as an anchorite's cell, (fn. 50) and
its occupant may have maintained a navigation light.
The chapel may have been occupied by 'the recluse
of St. Nicholas' who received corn as alms from
Tidenham manor in 1270 and by 'Patrick, the
chaplain of St. Nicholas' who received the same
alms in 1273, (fn. 51) but the earliest direct reference to the
chapel that has been found was in 1290 when a
Benedictine monk was licensed to celebrate in 'the
chapel of St. Tryak of Beachley' when he happened
to visit it. (fn. 52) By the late 14th century the chapel had
become institutionalized although no cure attached
to it: (fn. 53) incumbents, sometimes described as wardens,
were regularly presented and instituted and received
certain profits. In 1416 the Vicar of Tidenham
claimed that a portion of the profits of the chapel,
worth 40s., belonged to his vicarage from antiquity. (fn. 54)
Alms were sought for the conservation of the chapel
in 1405. (fn. 55) The patronage of the chapel was exercised
by the lords of Tidenham manor between 1394 and
1407, (fn. 56) but in the later 15th century John ap
Thomlyn, lord of Beachley, presented; (fn. 57) the last
recorded presentation, however, was made by the
Earl of Worcester, lord of Tidenham, in 1519. (fn. 58) In
1535 the chapel was returned as being worth nothing
'because it stands in the sea'. (fn. 59) It was in ruins by
the early 18th century, (fn. 60) and in 1750 a proposal to
rebuild it made by Ralph Allen of Prior Park was
frustrated by the Lewis family who owned the site. (fn. 61)
In 1969 a small portion of a wall with a roundheaded arch remained. (fn. 62)
There was at least one other medieval chapel at
Beachley, presumably originally built for the use of
travellers using the passage. A burgess of Bristol
who left money for a priest to celebrate for him in
the chapel of Beachley in 1398 may possibly have
been referring to St. Twrog's chapel, but in 1471
another testator left money for obits in the chapel
of St. Margaret at Beachley and also a silver bowl
for use as a chalice there; (fn. 63) that chapel may have
been the private oratory for which the inhabitants of
the hamlet were given licence in 1446. (fn. 64) John
Hopkins left land and rent to the chapel of Beachley
by his will dated 1504. (fn. 65) In 1573 there was a chapel
standing near the passage house; (fn. 66) it had been
demolished by 1779 when it was said to have been
dedicated to St. Ewen. (fn. 67)
Another medieval chapel in Tidenham parish
stood on the west side of the road leading down to
Chepstow Bridge. (fn. 68) It may have been the house for
the sick next Striguil (i.e. Chepstow) which was said
to have assarted 12 a. in Tidenham before 1282, (fn. 69)
for in 1306 the warden of the Hospital of St. David
held 28 a. of waste land in Tidenham manor (fn. 70) and
in the next year the chantry chapel of St. David
near Chepstow Bridge was recorded among the
possessions of the late Earl of Norfolk. (fn. 71) Later the
chapel passed to Striguil Priory, which made a lease
of it with a house and lands belonging in 1530. (fn. 72)
The parish church of Tidenham, dedicated to
ST. MARY, (fn. 73) comprises nave, chancel, north aisle,
south porch, and west tower. Of the church that
stood on the site in the 11th century only the font
survives, and the oldest part of the fabric is the base
of the tower which probably dates from the early
13th century. The two lower stages of the tower have
massive clasping buttresses, that at the south-west
corner containing a stair-turret with an external
entrance. At the head of the south-east buttress is a
small carved figure. The windows are small lancets,
widely splayed internally. The top stage of the tower,
which is without battlements, dates from the 15th
or early 16th century.
The body of the church appears to have been
largely rebuilt during the 13th and 14th centuries.
The north aisle has three lancet windows with
trefoil heads and an original doorway in its north
wall, and the easternmost bay of the arcade has a
13th-century arch. The south doorway, which
externally has attached shafts with stiff-leaf capitals
and double-roll bases, is typical of the later 13th
century. The four westernmost bays of the arcade
and the tower arch, which have chamfered orders
carried down to the jambs without the interruption
of capitals, may have been reconstructed in the 14th
century, but the bar and spur stops at their bases
are more characteristic of 13th-century work. There
is no chancel arch; the separation from the nave
was formerly effected by a screen, removed c. 1810. (fn. 74)
The south wall of the church has four 14th-century windows, two of them ogee-headed, and one 15th
or early-16th-century window, although most of
their tracery has been renewed, presumably at the
mid-19th-century restoration. The east window,
described in 1837 as a clumsy copy of the west
window at Tintern, (fn. 75) has also evidently been
renewed. The south chancel doorway, which has a
three-centred moulded head, is apparently of a
fairly late date. The aisle has a trussed rafter roof,
perhaps dating from the 14th century; the stone
corbels which supported an earlier roof still survive
above the arcade. The chancel roof appears to have
also been originally of the trussed rafter type, but
later strengthened, possibly in the 19th century, by
the insertion of arch-braced collar-beam trusses and
curved wind-braces. The arch-braced collar-beam
roof over the nave appears also to date from the
19th century, although it may be a copy of the
original. The church had a south porch in 1815 (fn. 76)
and it may, like the later porch, have had a room
above, for in 1819 a contract was made for fitting
up 'the vestry room'; (fn. 77) the porch appears to have
been entirely rebuilt in the mid 19th century.
In 1798 a man was paid for rough-casting the
church, (fn. 78) and in the mid 19th century the exterior
walls were whitewashed, according to tradition to
provide a mark for shipping. (fn. 79) In 1819 several
proprietors were licensed to put up a gallery, and
Sir Henry Cosby to build a seat, (fn. 80) presumably that
at the east end of the aisle which later belonged to
the owners of Sedbury Park; (fn. 81) both gallery and seat
have since been removed. In 1857 plans for a
restoration of the church under John Norton were
considered by the vestry (fn. 82) and evidently carried out,
for several rainwater heads bear the date 1858. The
organ-chamber on the north side of the chancel and
the considerable renewals to the fabric mentioned
above presumably date from that time. A faculty for
other alterations was granted in 1883, (fn. 83) but they were
evidently never carried out. Minor alterations were
made to the interior in 1901-2. (fn. 84)
The church has a Norman lead font, one of six
Gloucestershire fonts from the same blocks, another
of them being made for the neighbouring church of
Lancaut. The bowl is ornately decorated in relief
with an arcade of 12 bays containing alternately
figures and scroll-work; (fn. 85) the base is modern. (fn. 86) In
the east wall of the aisle there is a cusped piscina,
and a rood-loft entrance survives between the first
and second bays of the arcade. In the north wall of
the chancel are what appear to be the remains of a
tomb-recess. There are fragments of medieval
stained glass, including the arms of the ap Adam
family, in a window in the south wall of the nave. (fn. 87)
The church had three bells c. 1703, (fn. 88) but there was
a peal of six by 1779; (fn. 89) therefore the two dated
respectively 1710 and 1763, and apparently made
by Evan and William Evans of Chepstow, were
presumably additions rather than recastings. Of the
others one was recast in 1783, another by John
Rudhall in 1826, and the remaining two by Jefferies
and Price of Bristol in 1854. (fn. 90) Two of the bells were
recast and the whole peal rehung in 1896. (fn. 91) In 1681
the church plate comprised a silver bowl and
chalice and a pewter flagon. (fn. 92) A new silver chalice
was acquired in 1828, (fn. 93) but the plate was replaced
with a new set c. 1850. (fn. 94) Incomplete registers survive
from 1708. (fn. 95) A stone set in the west wall of the
churchyard records the building of the wall by
William Tyler in 1787. (fn. 96)
The peninsula of Lancaut apparently had a church
from an early period; the Welsh name of the parish,
meaning 'the church of St. Cewydd', (fn. 97) was presumably acquired well before 956 when Lancaut was in
the hands of the English king as part of Tidenham
manor. (fn. 98) Between 1297 and 1549 regular institutions
were made to the church, which was a rectory in the
patronage of the lords of Tidenham manor. (fn. 99) From
the mid 16th century, however, there was doubt as
to the status of the church: in 1535 and 1563 it was
described as a chapel to Lydney, (fn. 1) although it still
had a rector in the 1550s (fn. 2) and one was presented in
1629; (fn. 3) in 1661 and 1703 it was called a vicarage. (fn. 4)
From 1711 the living was held in plurality with that
of Woolaston, which was also in the patronage of the
Duke of Beaufort, and Lancaut came to be regarded
as a chapelry of Woolaston. (fn. 5) The living was held
with Woolaston until 1932 when it was united with
Tidenham. (fn. 6)
In 1584 it was said that certain lands had been
assigned as glebe for the church by the Earl of
Worcester's ancestors, but the parishioners were
afraid to give details of the glebe before the earl had
been consulted. (fn. 7) In 1517 the rector's tithes included
those of salmon taken in the weirs of the parish. (fn. 8) In
1839 the Rector of Woolaston was awarded a cornrent of £36 12s. 6d. for the tithes of Lancaut; there
were then 2 a. of glebe. (fn. 9) William, Abbot of Flaxley,
was instituted rector in 1474. (fn. 10) William Wellington,
the rector in 1551, was found unsatisfactory in
doctrine. (fn. 11) There was no minister in 1563, (fn. 12) or in
1576 when the parish was being served by an unlicensed reader, no sermons or homilies were
delivered and the statute for church attendance went
unobserved. (fn. 13) Later in 1576 the Vicar of Tidenham
was admitted to serve the cure for a year. (fn. 14) There
was a vicar in 1661 (fn. 15) and in 1703, when the vicar,
Richard Bedford, was also Vicar of Tidenham. (fn. 16) A
curate was licensed in 1708. (fn. 17) In 1738 the church
was found to have no bible or surplice and no
churchwarden had been appointed. In 1750 one
service was being held there each month (fn. 18) and
services continued to be held at the same interval in
the early 19th century. (fn. 19) Services were apparently
discontinued c. 1865; by 1885 the church was in
ruins (fn. 20) and in 1889 the parishioners were attending
church at Tidenham. (fn. 21) Regular services were never
revived, although one was held each year in the late
1930's, (fn. 22) and the church remained ruined and roofless in 1969.
The church of ST. JAMES, so called by the early
18th century, (fn. 23) stands on the south side of the
Lancaut peninsula close to the Wye. It is a small
building, c. 40 ft. in length, and comprises nave and
chancel. The fabric appears to date mainly from the
12th century and early 13th, and structural evidence
suggests that the nave and chancel were built or
rebuilt at different times. (fn. 24) On the south where the
site falls away steeply the base of the wall has an
external batter to give extra support. The chancel is
slightly narrower than the nave and is divided from
it by a chancel arch which springs from plain jambs
with chamfered abaci. The arch appears to have
been formed at two periods; facing the nave it is of
dressed stone and slightly pointed, but to the east
it is roughly constructed and a different shape. The
east window consists of a single light with a semicircular head, having a double roll-moulding
externally and a single roll on the inside. In the
south wall of the chancel is a late medieval piscina
with a cinquefoil head, and in the opposite wall the
remains of an aumbry. The segmental-headed south
doorway in the nave and the two square-headed
windows, one with a mullion, in the south wall are
apparently post-medieval. High up in the west gable
are two openings of unequal size with roughlypointed heads; they were apparently constructed to
house bells, for c. 1703, although the church then
had only one bell, it was said to hang in the west
wall. (fn. 25) By the early 19th century, however, the
church had a small bellcot over the west end. (fn. 26) In
the south-west corner of the nave are the remains of
a stone wall-seat.
In the early 19th century the nave was furnished
with box pews and a tall pulpit. (fn. 27) The lead bowl of
the Norman font was removed from the church
before 1890 by the patron, Sir William Marling,
who repaired it, and it remained in the possession
of his family at Sedbury Park and later at Stanley
Park until c. 1940 when it was given to Gloucester
Cathedral; the bowl, which is identical with that at
Tidenham except that it has ten bays instead of
twelve, stood in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral
in 1969 on the original stone base brought from
Lancaut. (fn. 28) The single bell was removed from the
church in the late 19th century for use at the school
at Woolaston. (fn. 29) No parish registers are known to
survive, but entries for Lancaut are included in the
Woolaston registers. Fragments of the tombstones,
which recorded burials in the small churchyard
between the 16th and early 19th centuries, (fn. 30) are
preserved inside the ruins. West of the church is the
stone base of a churchyard cross.