History

Present structure said to date from C13. Restored c1885 by John Prichard, Llandaff diocesan architect, who rebuilt the chancel. The vestry was added in c1920. The church is now wholly ruined and fragmentary. Formerly with oval churchyard.

Exterior

The church was not accesssible at resurvey; it is fenced off with access forbidden for safety reasons. It is thus not possible to check the survival of the features described at the time of listing (August 1980). Superficially the church appears to be in a far more damaged and fragmentary state than when it was listed and when it was described by John Newman in c1995.

The ruins of a medieval church. Stone walls, mostly stone rubble; once with slate roofs. West saddleback tower, nave with south porch and north vestry; chancel. Only the tower survives in anything like a complete state.
West tower with battered walls; blocked stone framed west doorway with relieving arch over; small rectangular opening set high in west wall with similar opening also in east wall. A rectangular slit opening set lower in south wall above a further rectangular opening. Small circular belfry opening set high in North wall with stone canopy on corbels over it.
South wall of nave with single light round headed window with sunk spandrels at west end, set close to gabled south porch, the rebuilt front wall of porch of coursed stone with round-headed arch with stone voussoirs; south-east nave window of two cusped ogee lights in square frame. North wall of nave with gabled structure, possibly vestry, to west (not shown on OS map of 1920) lit by a 2-light window of golden stone in its north gable. North-west nave window comprises a cusped single light in grey stone frame. Chancel lit by cusped single light window of golden stone in north wall, by 2-light window in east gable and by damaged 2-light window with broken dripstone and missing mullions in south chancel wall.

Interior

Not available for inspection at resurvey. The church is unroofed and the interior gone.

Reasons for Listing

This building is now very ruinous, but remains an important medieval site within the ringwork of Caerau Camp.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• St Mary the Virgin Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7594664

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)