The church is probably of thirteenth-century origin, but was partially repaired in 1845 and majorly renovated and repaired in 1886 when the entire roof and all of the doors and windows were replaced. Sir Stephen Richard Glynne visited the church before this later renovation and described it in his `Notes on the Older Churches in the Four Welsh Dioceses', Archaeologia Cambrensis, V, iii (1886), 55-69 (68-69).

Several medieval carved stones from before the renovation are displayed on the window shelves. The current church is built of irregular stones and roofed with thick slates with coped gabled. It consists of nave, chancel, northern chapel, southern transept, western tower, and southern vestry which was formerly (pre-1886), a porch, the external door of which has been filled and a square-headed window inserted. The northern chapel is considerably longer than the chancel, overlapping the nave.

The entrance is in the northern wall, near the tower. The eastern face of the chancel and chapel are rendered and there is a finial cross on the eastern gable of the chancel as well as the stump of another finial cross on the nave. The tall, tapering three-storey tower is crenelated with corner buttress within the parapet suggesting that there were formerly finials. The belfry is lit by pairs of lancet windows except for a square-headed light on the north. There is a stair turret at the north-east corner, projecting north, containing 105 steps to the battlements. Internally, chancel arch is high and pointed with late-gothic undulating mouldings, and to the west of it are two corbels which formerly supported the rood loft. There are also five corbels on the southern wall which formerly supported the roof. The font, which stands near the door, has a square basin on a circular shaft and has been redressed but may be original. The fittings in the chapel have been brought from St Mary's Mission Church, Kilgetty (Nprn 11710). There is also a Benefactions board.

Sources include:
Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire: Pembroke (RCAHMW: 1925) Vol. 1, p. 16; Cadw site report
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021).

RCAHMW 2021

Site Record

St Mary's Church, Begelly