St John the Baptist's Church
Church St, Newton, Porthcawl, CF36 5PD
During Churches Unlocked...
Open 10am - 4pm each day
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Holy Communion - Sunday 11.15am
Tuesday 10.30. Friday 10.30
Everyone welcome
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Bells to be rung at start of the event on Saturday 1st June and at 4pm on Saturday 8th June.
Tea, coffee and biscuits (and cake if we are lucky) served in The Old School Room across from the church each day from 11am - 3pm.
A guided tour of the church at 12 noon each day.
A Children’s Treasure Trail
About
We don’t know when Saint John’s was built, but we know there was a priest here in 1189.
His name was Glou and he was witness to a charter setting up the ‘novam villam’ the New Town in Nottage.
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Glou is the last priest we know anything of until 1400.
However, by 1330 the two parishes of Newton and Nottage had been united and the earlier church at Nottage abandoned.
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There are three manors in the parish – Pembroke, Herbert and Lougher – and they presented the rector in turn until the church was ‘disestablished’ in 1921 and the gift of patronage ceased.
Saint John’s church was originally dual purpose – designed by the Normans for worship and for defence against the Welsh and marauding Irish pirates.
The eight corbels jutting out on the east side suggest the presence of a look-out platform or possibly a roofed-in platform for archers.
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Wheelchair accessible church and churchyard​
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Small carpark in front of the church. Large car park behind the Ancient Briton public house, opposite the church by kind permission of Rod and Sian.
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5min walk from St Clare's Convent School bus stop on Bridgend Rd (X2 bus).