Church Heritage Cymru 4561

The church consists of three sections: the East Church with nave, two aisles, chancel and west tower; the West Church which has a south porch with parvise above; and a large chapel (Galilee) built against the west end, with an upper floor at its east end. There is also a small two storey building, now used as a kitchen with office above, to the N of the chapel, accessed from the restored Galilee.

There is evidence of human settlement along the Glamorgan Heritage Coast during the Neolithic Age (3500BC to 2000BC); during the Bronze Age (2000BC to 750BC) people moved back and forth across the Bristol Channel for trade and settlement, perhaps using the estuary of the Afan Colhuw at what is now Llantwit Major, as a port. There are three Iron Age hill-forts close to Llantwit Major, and a feasting site has been discovered at Llanmaes, just north of the town. A Roman villa was discovered in 1888 on the northern outskirts of Llantwit Major, which had various agricultural buildings, suggesting this was the home of a prosperous farmer in this rich agricultural area.

There is no archaeological or documentary evidence of an early Christian presence in the area, though there may have been a small Christian community at Llantwit Major before the arrival of St Illtud in the late 5th century. Evidence from the 7th century Vita Samsonis suggests that Illtud's monastic school was well established by 490. While there is a 12th century Life of St Illtud which says that Illtud was born in Brittany, in actual fact all that we can say with any certainty about him was that he was an educated and cultured man, who had studied the Scriptures, was ordained priest, was magister and abbot of a monastic school, and was revered by his successors. There are no archaeological remains of Illtud's monastic school, so it cannot be precisely determined where it was situated. It is likely to have been in the wide valley of the Afan Colhuw near the coast, and under the protection of an extensive promontory fort. The river mouth of the Colhuw provided a suitable site for a port, serving the seaways to and from Somerset, Brittany and Ireland. Pupils at St Illtud's monastic school are traditionally said to include St Samson and St Paul Aurelian, who travelled to Cornwall and Brittany, St David and St Gildas.

The monastic community at Llantwit Major suffered from the Viking raids in the 9th century, and may have relocated from the coast inland to the present site of the church at that time. Llantwit Major was used during the 9th and 10th century as a royal burial ground for the kings of Glywysing, as reflected in the inscriptions on the crosses now preserved in the Galilee Chapel. By the 11th century, Llantwit was a 'clas' church, with a small community of canons.

In 1102 the Norman lord of Glamorgan, Robert Fitzhamon, gave the church at Llantwit to Tewkesbury Abbey, and also the monastic farm to the west. The pre-Norman 'clas' church was rebuilt at that time, comprising the present West Church (itself rebuilt in the 15th century), north and south transepts and a chancel; all that remains are the archway over the south door and some fragments of masonry. In the 13th century, the transepts and chancel of the Norman church were levelled, to be replaced by a new chancel and nave of four bays with aisles, the south aisle extending the length of the chancel. A low tower was erected over the division between the Norman 'West Church' and the new 'East Church', and a large porch added to the West Church, with a Parvise Room above. A chapel was added to the west end of the church, with a lower storey as a processional (the Galilee) and an upper storey as a Lady Chapel. In the 14th century the south aisle was shortened to balance the north aisle so that both were the length of the nave. In the 15th century the West Church and the Lady or Galilee Chapel were rebuilt, and the east window of the chancel inserted. In the late 15th or early 16th century the Galilee Chapel was endowed as a chantry chapel for the benefit of the Ragland family, and a house built for the chantry priest in the grounds of the church.

The West Church was probably the parish church with the East Church used by the monks of Tewkesbury. However, with the Reformation, Tewkesbury Abbey was dissolved, and the patronage of Llantwit Major passed to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral. The Chantry was suppressed and the chapel and house sold, the chantry becoming a ruin until it was rebuilt in 2013. A series of restorations of St Illtud's took place from 1888 to 1905, during which the early medieval monuments were brought inside the West Church; the restoration was largely the work of G.E.Halliday, the Llandaff diocesan architect. Further work was carried out in the 1950s by George Pace, and in 1992 the two churches were divided by a glass screen, and a spiral stair case to the parvise room was introduced. On 6th September 2012 work was begun on the Galilee Chapel to the design of Michael Davies of Davies Sutton and Partners, which retained the character of a ruin in a finished building. A new mezzanine floor was erected above the eastern part of the Galilee Chapel, providing a meeting place, and most importantly the early medieval stones were moved from the West Church into the restored Galilee, allowing them to be viewed from all sides for the first time for over 100 years.

St Illtud's is constructed in lias limestone, quoined mainly in the same material, though the tower is quoined in Sutton stone. Sutton stone was also used for the earlier openings, teamed with a limestone of similar appearance but more tractable character, identified by George Halliday as Dundry stone: the later medieval openings are in sandstone, and Bath stone was used for the 1899-1905 repairs.The roofs are of Welsh slate.

The entrance is into the West Church. The doorway, which is reached through a porch with a recessed chamfered 2-centred arch of C13 type, is a plain round arched Norman one with a Victorian plank door. The parvise above is lit by a single trefoil headed light over the archway, but there are five small square openings (putlog holes) rising diagonally on either side up into the gable. Battered base with corner buttresses, very steeply pitched gable. The right hand buttress is corbelled out to the upper floor, which seems to have been done to accommodate a preexisting building, since demolished (shown on a plan by Halliday). The south wall of the nave shows stonework of different characters said by Halliday to be evidence of the incorporation of part of a pre-Norman building, with possibly two rebuildings above. To the left of the porch is a 3-light arched Perpendicular window with cusped lights; to the right is a 3-light square headed Decorated window with cusped and trefoiled heads, and to the right again a 2-light C13 one with equal trefoil headed lights. The north wall has a window similar to this latter one, but a Victorian replacement.

The dripcourse on the west side of the tower above the south slope of the West Church roof suggests that the roofline has been lowered, whereas the north pitch appears to be original, but it is difficult to see any difference internally. The tower is over the west end of the east church. Although, internally, the crossing is Transitional and therefore probably of c1200 what can be seen on the outside appears C14 with a probably C16 castellated parapet. Two stages above the roof with a single light with cusped head on the north and south faces, the one on the east face is now internal. Pairs of trefoil lights to belfry; corbel table; castellated parapet with cross-eyelets.

The East Church comprises nave, chancel and north and south aisles of later C13, the massive stone arcade piers built on the lines of the walls of the Norman or earlier chancel. Two-light aisle windows with Geometric tracery, three on either side, the south-west window now a door, buttresses of 1905 between the windows on the south side added to support the flying arches within. Clerestorey windows, partly set into the aisle roofs, two on the north and one on the south, although Lambert found evidence for a second in 1888, 2-light Perpendicular windows, the northern ones seemingly Victorian. Three-light east and west windows to both aisles. Halliday suggests that the Early English east window of the south aisle is the original east window reused when the aisle was shortened. Chancel with four lancet windows with trefoil heads on north side; restored Perpendicular east window with two large lights, each with two smaller ones within, panelled head and dripmould over. Probably C15 2-light ogee headed windows in blocked arcade arches on south side. Priest's door and attached early C19 railed enclosure below. The north wall with coursed and squared stones is largely part of the restoration, as is the upper part of the east gable with its coping and apex cross.

The C13 west Galilee building, with its former chapel, later probably a chantry chapel, was restored 2012-3. This has a C13 window with tracery restored in the west gable which lit the upper chapel and large archways flanked by buttresses in both north and south walls to the undercroft; two of these medieval buttresses have been ripped off at some period leaving large scars. The interior of this section retains, in the upper part of the east wall, a multiple-moulded niche with a dripmould over (a later addition for protection) and, to the right, an ogee headed piscina. west window; two stone staircases at the west end and a further one at the north-east end leading to the stair to the upper floor of the former Sacristry entered through a small 2-centred doorway, with a larger 3-centred arch beside it into the west church. Probably C15 Sacristan's lodging of two storeys against north wall. This has small square headed windows, a steeply pitched roof and a gable chimney.

The restoration of the Galilee Chapel by Michael Davies of Davies Sutton and Partners used Woodkirk sandstone on the irregular wall tops of ruined north and south walls to support frameless glass, with a new frame installed to support the roof of Cornish slates. New simple tracery was inserted into the west window for the plain glass.

Source: Cadw listing http://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=13259 (with additions)

West Church : Fifteen bay C15 arch-braced collar beam roof with seven principal trusses and eight secondary ones. The buttresses flanking the tower arch were added in the early C18, certainly before 1731 and possibly the same date as the bells i.e. 1722, and thus added to counter the additional stresses on the tower.

East Church : The crossing is carried on four clustered piers which were underpinned and rebuilt in 1899 with the consequent loss of some detail. Only one now has a carved capital with trumpet flowers etc., but the other carving was already recorded as lost or damaged in 1858 (Archaeologia Cambrensis). The particularly remarkable feature in the nave is the evidence for the two-times heightening of the roof to be clearly seen on the east wall of the tower; and the very rough and unfinished nature of the three bay arcades and chancel arch; both are clearly broken through an existing wall, presumably with a much smaller opening before. The flying buttresses were inserted in the south aisle in 1905 to counter the movement of the south arcade since the second heightening in the C15. Late C19 waggon roof done as part of the Lambert restoration. The aisle roofs are also Victorian. C15 chancel arch to C13 chancel. Probably C15 close set arch-braced collar beam depressed waggon roof with three members running the full length.

Galillee : central timber frame of American oak supporting the new roof. Ground floor - toilets, passage and stairs in first (east|) bay; glass entrance doors in former south doorway and glazed former north doorway; display of early medieval stones in third (west) bay. Mezzanine floor - from east wall of Galilee to second bay, supported by steel columns, with glass screen to provide viewing area for the early medieval stones. 13th century Niche (former west window of West Church) and piscina. Former sacristy - ground floor tea station; upper floor office and archive. Doorway connecting Galilee with the West Church restored with glazed doors. Polished limestone floor throughout and white limewashed walls.