St Mary's Church

St Mary’s Church stands two miles south of Newport in a quiet village called Nash. It is a large medieval church with a tall 15th-century tower topped by an octagonal spire. The tower is unusual because it sits on the north side of the chancel rather than at the west end. Inside, the nave dates from the 18th century and the chancel from the 19th. The interior still shows a complete Georgian arrangement of gallery, box pews and a three-decker pulpit. The church has strong links to Goldcliff Priory, which owned it in 1349. In the 17th century the Arney family left land known as “The Poor’s Six Acres” to help the parish poor. A squint or hagioscope in the north wall once let worshippers with leprosy or smallpox watch services without risking infection. During the 1607 Bristol Channel flood the church recorded the disaster on a memorial plaque. In the Second World War Sunday services sometimes drew four hundred people. Visitors enter through the porch and step into a spacious nave lit by tall windows. The box pews and three-decker pulpit form a rare Georgian ensemble. The chancel’s north wall still shows the remains of the original Norman church. Above, the tower’s fine spire rises above the moorland skyline. The churchyard is quiet, with a few old gravestones and a view across the fields to the distant hills.