View through main door
Stone seat circa 1250
Piscina (13th century)
High altar
Stained glass window
Norman font (12th century)
Fish symbol carved in exterior wall
Preaching cross
Grave of St John Kemble
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The Church consists of a nave, chancel and tower built during the 13th century and a porch built during the 14th century.

Up until 1312 it belonged to the Knights Templar and then on their suppression it passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights Hospitaller were deprived of their possessions at the dissolution of the monasteries in about 1540.

The Church contains much of interest, in particular, the Rood Screen has been described as one of the great possessions of the church; there are very few stone screens as old. It was erected in about 1320 and displays the typical embellishment of the decorated period, the ball flower. The present roof dates from the early 16th century, but portions of the original roof remain.

Outside the churchyard extends to just over 2 acres and is surrounded by a fine stone wall built in 1866. The preaching Cross has medieval steps and socket-stone with a modern shaft and head. The grave of Saint John Kemble is situated immediately west of the Cross. Various Knight Templar/Hospitaller graves can be seen both in the church and churchyard.


John Kemble (1599-1679) was a much-loved Catholic priest martyred during the madness of the “Popish Plot”.

In normal times, despite harsh anti-Catholic laws, the extent of persecution depended upon the sympathies of local landowners and JPs. Around Hereford and Monmouth, for example, where the Catholic Earls (from 1642 Marquesses) of Worcester held sway at Raglan Castle, the old religion was for long periods practised with impunity. From 1622 there was even a Jesuit College at Cwm, near Welsh Newton. At nearby Dingestow 20-odd worshippers at the parish church would see some 60 Catholics trooping past on their way to Mass.

In 1678 the farrago of lies concocted by Titus Oates, that there was a Jesuit conspiracy to murder the King, gave disgruntled Protestants and ambitious chancers their opportunity. A Monmouthshire rogue called William Bedloe laid false information against the leading Catholics of the area.

One of those who suffered in the prevailing hysteria was John Kemble. Born into a Catholic family at St Weonards, some five miles north of Welsh Newton, he had studied for the priesthood at the English College in Douai.

Ordained in 1625, he returned to Monmouthshire and served more than 50 years as an itinerant priest, winning admirers even among Protestants. Based at Pembridge Castle, which his brother had leased in 1630, he had seemed immune from prosecution.

Moreover in 1651 his nephew Richard Kemble saved Charles II’s life at the battle of Worcester. The King, however, was not a man to remember past services when his own preservation was at stake.

As the anti-Catholic furore boiled over in 1678 John Kemble rejected all warnings, declaring that he could do no better than to die for Christ.

In 1679 he was sentenced to be hanged under an Elizabethan statute which defined being ordained a Catholic priest overseas as treason.

First, though, the 80-year-old was strapped on to a horse like a pack, facing backwards, and taken to Newgate in London for interrogation. Kemble disdained to win his freedom by disclosing a non-existent plot. The old man was then obliged to walk back to Hereford.

Informed on August 22 that he would be executed that day, he asked to be allowed to finish his prayers and smoke his pipe.

After being dragged on a hurdle to Widemarsh Common, Kemble declared on the scaffold that he died for the religion that had made this country Christian, and that he forgave all his enemies. He was then obliged to encourage the executioner, who had no stomach for his task.

The hanging was horribly botched, so that Kemble took half an hour to die. Subsequently he was beheaded, and his left hand cut off: this may still be seen at the church of St Francis Xavier in Hereford.

(Reproduced from The Catholic Herald, August 2010)


This website is maintained by the Parochial Church Council for the Parish of Welsh Newton and Llanrothal


St Mary the Virgin,

Welsh Newton,

Monmouth NP25 5RN.

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Piscina (13th century)