Discover the 15th-Century St George Painting at St Cadoc's Church.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. Today I've come to another beautiful rural church here in Wales, a 13th century grade one listed building. This church is located in a tiny village a few miles down some very small lanes around six miles from the town of Abergavenny. As usual I'm going to talk about some of the history of this place and hopefully give you some really interesting information. I get lots of different questions regarding these ancient churches so I'll try my best and answer some of them today. Firstly let's talk about some of the history. St Caddick's church was believed to be built in the early 13th century as the parish was first recorded in 1254. It is likely that the original church underwent major reconstruction in the 14th or 15th century with the building of a chancel, tower and porch perhaps added in stages. At the end of the building works the interior was covered with figurative paintings. These survived until the 16th century reformation when the changes in worship led to the whitewash of the saints and the removal of the rude screen. Then in the 17th century wooden pews were introduced. At the beginning of the second half of the 19th century the building was in a poor state of repair so in 1876 it underwent a Victorian renovation carried out by John Pritchard who had been involved in the construction and renovation of many churches in South Wales. Now to answer one of the questions I constantly get on my tours, is this a Catholic church? The answer is no. I only visit Anglican churches and normally only ancient ones meaning the pre-reformation era. So for example this church built in the 1200s would have originally been a Catholic church but Henry VIII changed everything in the 16th century to separate himself from the Catholics and Rome. This is where we get the Protestant Christians from. It is slightly more complicated than that but that's just a very quick explanation. So the Anglicans are slightly different again. They consider themselves part of the universal Catholic church and obviously were changed through the English Reformation but you'll find inside these churches a lot of Catholic looking things. So for example I was raised a Christian and the churches I went to they never have Jesus depicted on the cross. It's always the cross without him on it. Also the biggest difference is Mary was just the mother of Jesus. She's not important and obviously in you know Catholicism Mary's very important. So unfortunately Henry VIII in his wisdom ordered his soldiers to smash up the rude screens, paint over pictures of saints like this one of George and the Dragon. Later on you'll see the church cross in the graveyard that's missing the cross itself. You'll never find a complete church cross in these churches. They were also known as preaching crosses. So Henry VIII really damaged our history by doing all this and I would say very selfishly. That leads me on to my next most asked question. Am I a Christian? And the answer is no. I would consider myself a heliognostic which is more a science really. So the nearest religion I'm aligned with would be a Kafar. An original one from the 13th century not the modern day version. I may or may not talk about this in a future video. But out of all the religions the Kafars made the most sense to me. Probably why they were all destroyed by the Catholic church. As I say maybe a story for another day. So then the next question is why do I love these churches and want to save one? Now since I align with the Kafars not the Catholics it doesn't really make sense I suppose. All I can say is I seem to be drawn to these buildings. I love the history and architecture and I really don't want to lose them. Now a lot goes on behind the scenes on this channel and for the past 13 months since I've been making videos I've tried really hard not to upset anyone. But the truth is most of these buildings are in real trouble. You can just see that by the footage I take. For example the tower on this church is in a dreadful state and if it hasn't had a major restoration for 150 years that's exactly why. They constantly need repairing and restoring. Now before I get myself into trouble this is not a criticism or me bad-mouthing this particular church because I think it's a really beautiful one. This is more talking about all the old churches. Let me put it this way if you think by having one or two services a month and you're happy because 20 or 30 people turn up then it's time to get real. Your church is in deep trouble. Most people think because buildings like this one have a grade one listed status they're protected but that's actually far from the truth. Now don't take my word for it I've actually asked Google this question and when we go outside I'm going to read out what Google had to say and there'll be 10 facts that you didn't know about these churches and one of them is the one I just mentioned about the grade listing and the negativity that actually has on these places. And there's one other fact that really shocked me and that's regarding churches in Scotland so please stay to the end of this video because I'm sure that will really interest you. Before you hear those 10 shocking facts let's finish on a more positive note for this church. In around 2003 the church underwent a restoration. This is when they've discovered the 15th century wall painting of Saint George slaying the dragon. They also found the skeleton of a man inside the south wall who was believed to be a holy man or a monk. Recent excavations found many burials underneath the floor of the chancel including two young children and a woman buried in the coffin dated 1738. St Caddick's church recent restoration was a starting point for the Village Alive Trust a building preservation society. This charity was established specifically to secure the funding for St Caddick's and they have since gone on to save other endangered historic sites across Monmouthshire. They are currently working on the preservation of St Helio's church in Clannarth. So this is great news. Hopefully the charity will be making its way back to this church to help secure its future and I hope you'll agree it definitely deserves it. Let's head back outside and check out the graveyard. Over 3,500 churches have closed across the UK in the past decade. Dwindling congregations and skyrocketing repair bills for aging historic buildings are forcing widespread closures transforming the British religious and social landscape. Here are 10 shocking facts about this mass closure. Number 1. Thousands face imminent threat. A recent survey by the National Churches Trust found that 5% of all churches equating to roughly 2,000 buildings state they will probably or definitely close within the next five years. Number 2. Rural churches heavily dependent on older volunteers and limited local fundraising are at high risk with an estimated 900 rural parishes expected to shut in the near future. Number 3. Research shows that when a local church is forced to close up to 29% of its congregation completely stops attending church altogether rather than transfer into a new one. Number 4. Nearly 38% of all UK churches report requiring urgent and expensive repair work on their roofs and stonework often pricing small local communities out of the maintaining of their own buildings. Number 5. Many closed churches are being repurposed into entertainment venues. Notable examples include the Chapel Nightclub in Salisbury and Sanctum in Bournemouth both built directly inside former church buildings. Number 6. Former places of worship are undergoing drastic physical transformations. Some are being converted into commercial gyms and residential flats and a select few have even been turned into swimming pools. Number 7. Amidst financial struggles and falling membership the Church of Scotland has announced plans to shut up to 40% of its remaining church buildings. Number 8. There are roughly 38,500 churches chapels and meeting houses in the UK and nearly half of them are protected as listed buildings which make legal repairs prohibitively expensive. Number 9. While a majority of closed churches are repurposed for secular use a portion has also been successfully sold and converted into mosques or other non-christian places of worship. And finally Number 10. The epidemic of church closures mirrors the decline of local pubs and youth centres. For elderly and isolated individuals who rely on weekly services for socialization church closures mean the loss of their only regular community contact. I really hope you enjoyed today's video. Please take a minute to digest these sobering facts and I'll see you all really soon.