St Mary’s Church in Tenby. Photograph © lhourahane
St Mary’s Church, Tenby is a church located in the centre of the town of Tenby in Pembrokeshire, western Wales. The church is in the Diocese of Saint David’s within the Church in Wales, and members of the Anglican Communion.
There is believed to have been a church on the site since Norman times, but most of what remains dates from the 13th century building and subsequent additions in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The 13th century chancel has a ‘wagon’ roof and the panelled ceiling has 75 bosses carved with a variety of foliage designs, grotesques, fishes and a mermaid. St Thomas’ Chapel was added in the mid-15th century, and the St. Nicholas Chapel was added in c. 1485. The spire was also a 15th century addition. Inside the church is a 15th century font and a 15th century bell with the letters ‘Sancta Anna’.
The tower is positioned to one side of the chancel and dates from the late 13th century. The first floor served as a chapel, and still has a stone altar and piscina in place.
The church contains several memorials, including the tombs of Thomas and John White, both Mayors of Tenby in the fifteeth century. Thomas White was famous for hiding a young Henry Tudor from King Richard III.
There is also a wall tablet in memory of Robert Recorde, an Elizabethan scholar, who introduced the equals sign ( = ) to mathematical calculation.
