Priory Church of St Mary

The church itself is delightful but doesn't seem to be open to tourists. I was lucky to find the door open and have a peek inside. However the priory gate is not open for visitors. I was informed by a local that tourist aren't able to visit the priory and it's privately rowed and sadly run down.

Another cult

What did it mean to live on a medieval border? This picturesque town - on the St Thomas Way - with its castle, medieval Priory Church and bridge over the River Usk, is a good place to start.

Apart from Usk Castle, the other medieval highlight of Usk is the Priory Church of St Mary, founded jointly as a Benedictine nunnery and parish church in the twelfth century, but significantly re-built after the Glyndwr attacks in 1405.

The many treasures of the Priory Church include a Norman tower and font, many monuments and memorials, and a spectacular, richly-carved wooden screen which divides the chancel from the nave. This dates to the fifteenth century, and would have separated the nuns from the townspeople during worship.

On the chancel (eastern) side of the screen is a tiny medieval treasure, easily overlooked. A small brass plaque bears the epitaph of the priest, lawyer and chronicler Adam of Usk, who died in 1430. A local boy, Adam’s career took him far from this small town and into the fraught politics of English kingship and government. But his epitaph shows the importance he placed on his Welsh, Usk roots. Translated from the Welsh by J. Morris-Jones, it reads roughly:

After fame, to the tomb, from on the bench,
The most skilled advocate of London,
And judge of the world by gracious privilege,
May the heavenly abode be thine, good sire.
Lo! a Solomon of wisdom,
Adam Usk, is sleeping here,
Wise doctor of ten commotes,
Behold a place full of learning!

The Welsh is a bit odd, and often spelled strangely, as though following English spelling rules. This tiny poem is an evocative memorial of a life lived across borders and between shifting identities.

Lovely church. The organ is beautiful as well.

Lovely and warm visit to this place of historical significance. An exquisitely decorated organ with unusual piping

25/11/22: Usk Weekend

For over 900 years the Priory Church of St. Mary has been at the very heart of life in Usk. Its origin was as the church of Usk Priory, a Benedictine nunnery founded by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in the twelfth century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church became the parish church of the town. Extended and restored in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was again restored in 1899–1900. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1974.

The church houses a fine Gray and Davison organ of 1861 which it was built to a scheme devised by Sir Frederick Gore Ousely for Llandaff Cathedral.

Pleasant place, very peaceful and contains a lot of history, it has secluded seating for people paying respect to their deceased loved ones. Always tidy

Always tidy, it has seating areas and is never busy