JULY 2025 · PATINA
Forgetten Churches Roadtrip
Black Mountains, Powys / Monmouthshire
One of them was locked. That's the starting condition. Churches in the Black Mountains and the valleys below them, medieval or Victorian or somewhere between, sitting on small rises at the edges of fields, surrounded by lichen-covered headstones and dense Welsh valley woodland. The signboards give a phone number for the key. The phone number rarely answers.
One had a key left by the caretakers in a specific place. I was told where to look by someone else who'd been there. That's how access works.
Inside, the rood screen was the thing I hadn't expected. Medieval carved wood, painted in red and green tracery, spanning the full width of the nave. The gilded cornice still intact. Tiled floor below it, carved eagle lectern to one side, barrel-vault ceiling above. The screen has survived everything the building has survived — the reformations, the neglect, the Nonconformist tendency to strip out anything decorative. It's still there. It's complete.
The screen has survived everything the building has survived — the reformations, the neglect, the Nonconformist tendency to strip out anything decorative.
South Wales and Black Mountains — July 2025
A second church, different register entirely: Art Nouveau embossed murals covering the nave walls, scripture text running in a frieze above them, oil lamps hanging from a painted arch, stained glass beyond. The floor of the chancel geometric tile. A harmonium under a leaded window, unplayed. The harmonium still has its hymn numbers up on the board.
The vestry told its own story. Peeling plaster walls, a carved hymn board cabinet, a moth-eaten processional banner leaning in the corner, a mop. An ancient table with a ledger, a key, and an inkwell still in place. Not abandoned — attended to, just rarely.
On a whitewashed wall above the pews of one church: a skeleton. Medieval, painted directly on the plaster, the figure of Death faded to pale outline. Still legible. Still there above the congregation's seats, which are empty on a Wednesday afternoon in late June.
A worn Holy Bible and a green hymnal on a small wooden stand beside a dark candlestick. The Bible's spine is cracked from use. The pages have not turned for some time.
Welsh church interior with an ornate medieval carved wooden rood screen, barrel-vault ceiling and stone pulpit, Black Mountains
Church corner with embossed Art Nouveau wall murals, scripture text frieze, pew and harmonium under a leaded window, Wales
Abandoned vestry corner with peeling plaster walls, a carved hymn board cabinet, moth-eaten processional banner and mop, Wales
Decorative floral mosaic altar frontal below a black reredos and stained glass window, twin candelabras, remote Welsh church
Faded medieval wall painting of a skeleton figure of Death on a whitewashed church wall above pews, Black Mountains Wales
Elaborate painted medieval wooden rood screen with red and green tracery panels, tiled floor and carved eagle lectern, Wales
Floral mosaic altar frontal with tall candelabras and bright stained glass window above, remote Welsh church interior
Welsh church interior with floral mosaic altar, embossed murals, oil lamps, stained glass and geometric tiled chancel floor
Close view of painted medieval rood screen with gilded cornice and tracery, tiled floor and carved pulpit, Black Mountains Wales
Worn Holy Bible and green hymnal on a small wooden book stand beside a dark wooden candlestick, Welsh church
Small dark wooden coffer atop an ancient painted box pew in a stone-walled church interior, Wales
Welsh church nave with embossed Art Nouveau wall murals, pews, a bell rope and leaded window, stained glass beyond the arch
Church nave with rows of pews, embossed Art Nouveau murals and scripture text along the walls, leaded windows, Wales
Welsh church nave with embossed murals receding to the carved rood screen, painted nave arch and stained glass beyond
Ancient vestry table with an old ledger, key and ink well, carved hymn board cabinet and green curtain, Welsh church
Framed view through pews toward a floral mosaic altar with geometric tile steps and candelabras, remote Welsh church
Welsh church nave with pale wooden pews, painted scripture panels on white walls, hymn board and carved ceiling screen
Carved wooden rood screen with Gothic tracery spanning the nave, hymn board and stained glass beyond, remote Welsh church
Row of lichen-covered Georgian headstones along a churchyard wall, dense green Welsh valley woodland and fields behind
Simple whitewashed Welsh church interior with plain pews, a stone trefoil arch recess, memorial tablet and timber beams