St Nicholas Church Barry

With a commanding view of Barry Island and the Bristol Channel, St Nicholas Church has stood for hundreds of years. It would have been a familiar sight and a landmark to the mariners' of old. St Nicholas was the parish church for the medieval and post-medieval village of Barry and no doubt contains the mortal remains of many of its villagers. What you see now though is a Victorian copy of the original as the medieval church was destroyed in 1874. 

(Facing east from the mainland, this early nineteenth century painting conveys something  of the rural character of the area before development)

The medieval church was smaller than the present church but occupied roughly the same ground. The name of this church is derived from the patron saint of sailors', St Nicholas, and certainly named so because of the local harbour. The medieval church was Norman in origin and was around 14 meters in length by 5.9 meters and encompassed a chancel and nave. The windows had iron grilles and internal shutters and it is possibly that the roof was thatched at some point.

(Multi-phase plan depicting the  medieval church, the Victorian church, church boundary and the priest's  house.)

During the fifteenth century the church underwent a number of changes. The roof was by this point glazed with Cornish slate and the chancel was rebuilt owing to subsidence and a Perpendicular door was erected. It seems that the church of St Nicholas also benefited from a fifteenth century innovation, the rood screen. It has been discovered from recovered fragments of interior plaster that the church would have been decorated with wall paintings - these were whitewashed over during the Reformation. 

(St Nicholas  church as  it stands today)

Like many church yards in times gone by, they were more than simply a place of death. On the contrary they were full of life as they were frequently used for a variety of purposes. Post medieval evidence of coins, buckles and ale jugs at St Nicholas attests to this. During excavations in 1983 a priests house came to light. It originally stood on the east-side of the church entrance. 

The church is no longer used for worship and is presently used by a local scout group.

Mark and Jonathan Lambert are archaeology graduates of Cardiff University and are published authors. They have been writing about and researching local history for the past 20 years and have a wealth of knowledge. All articles are original compositions - we hope you enjoy our content. Enquiries: hiddenglamorgan@outlook.com