Priory Church of St Mary | |
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Priory Church of St Mary
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Coordinates: 51°49′17″N 3°00′55″W / 51.8214°N 3.0154°W | |
Location | Abergavenny, Monmouthshire |
Country | Wales |
Denomination | Church in Wales |
Website | Official website |
History | |
Founder(s) | Hamelin de Ballon |
Architecture | |
Status | Parish church |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | Grade I |
Designated | 11 July 1952 |
Administration | |
Deanery | Abergavenny |
Diocese | Monmouthshire |
Clergy | |
Canon(s) | Revd Canon Mark Soady |
Deacon(s) | Revd Sarah Gillard-Faulkner |
The Priory Church of St Mary, Abergavenny is a church in the centre of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales.
St. Mary's has been called 'the Westminster Abbey of Wales' because of its large size, its number of high status church monument tombs and the rare medieval effigies surviving within it. The church was designated as a Grade I listed building on 1 July 1952.
It was originally the church of the Benedictine Priory, established under Hamelin de Balun the first Norman holder of the title Lord Abergavenny, which in the 1090s became Baron Bergavenny. At this time it was a cell of the at Le Mans in France. Recent archaeological surveys have revealed significant finds of Roman Samian ware pottery, suggesting that the church may have been built on the site of a previous place of Romano-British and possibly Celtic worship.
Henry de Abergavenny was a prior here and later at Llandaff in the late 12th century and was chosen to assist at the coronation of King John I of England in 1199. Successive Lords of Abergavenny were by necessity also benefactors, including William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber.