Northeast side of St Mary's Church, Malpas, Newport

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 1 Nov 2015

Part of the Church in Wales Diocese of Monmouth, the church is on the east side of Malpas Road, between Graig Park Circle to the north and Llanover Close to the south. The church website states there has been a religious presence on this site since the early 12th century, through the foundation of a Cluniac monastic cell, linked to Montacute Abbey in Somerset, and was part of the Benedictine Monastic Order founded at Cluny in the Burgundy region of France. The original Church of St Mary was situated partly under where the present church stands, but was much smaller. The current church building was constructed in 1850 in the Neo-Norman style to a design by John Prichard, architect to the Diocese of Llandaff, using (or copying) many of the features of the older building. It is one of only a relatively small number built in Wales in the neo-Norman style before the Ecclesiological Movement concentrated on Gothic as the correct style for church building. It is now a Grade II listed building. Surrounding the Church on three sides is a large cemetery and two Gardens of Remembrance. In 1850, Malpas was a country farming area where several industrialists built country houses. In the 1930s, the character of Malpas began to change when two housing estates were built. This development gained pace after the Second World War when a large council estate was built and the remaining farm land was sold in the 1960s for private housing development. From a few hundred inhabitants when the Church was built in 1860, the population of Malpas has now risen to more than 10,000.

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