Panteg Church

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Panteg Church

A beautiful building steeped in history. Tucked away on the eastern fringe of New Inn it is just 30 minutes walk from where I live in Griffithstown. A building has stood on this site from Norman times and possibly earlier although the church was almost completely rebuilt in the Victorian period. The embattled tower is, however, fifteenth century. Its registers date from 1598. From memory the earliest volume includes a note c 1645 that it had been hidden lest it fall into the wrong hands – a reference no doubt to the parliamentary army during the Civil War – it is this reference that has probably given rise to the claim that the church was pillaged at the time. Set in its idyllic, rural surroundings, the church’s relationship with the expanding industrial communities to the west is an interesting one. it is reflected in the letter written to the Panteg Local Board in 1879 which complained of the bad state of the road between Griffithstown and the church. Griffithstown had been developing throughout the 1860s due to the Newport to Hereford railway and boosted by the opening of Panteg Steel Works in 1873. Until 1888 there was no Anglican church in the village and no doubt many trudged across the valley to Panteg church. The letter of complaint about the road was written, indeed, by Reverend Eliot, the incumbent at Panteg. The Local Board admitted it was an ‘ancient way’ but doubted it was responsible for its upkeep. In the event they accepted the generous offer of the chair to repair it at his own expense. 
Tony Hopkins

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