The East End of the North Aisle
The Lady Chapel

View of the War Memorial

The Lady Chapel was restored by Sir Thomas G Jackson in 1921 as a Memorial to those who had died in the First World War.

The design of the marble floor represents the trenches of that conflict.
To the left of the alter is a beautiful fifteenth century niche, pillared by ascending angel musicians and surmounted by a carving of a pelican and its young. The pelican is yet another representation of Christ, because of its legendary reputation of caring so much for its offspring that when no other nourishment was available it would pluck out its heart and feed the young with its own blood. This reputation may derive from the pelican's habit of regurgitating partially digested material from its stomach to provide its young with food.

The niche contains a modern statue, but it is thought that it may once have contained the Living Image (Y Ddelw Fyw), an image of the Virgin which is reputed to have moved. Such living statues became the focal points for pilgrims who would journey almost any distance and endure untold hardships just to gaze upon the lifeless forms in the hope of witnessing a miracle. This particular image was destroyed by sixteenth century reformers.

The present stone statue of the Virgin and Child was placed in the mediaeval niche by Mrs Blackburne in memory of her two children who were drowned when their evacuation ship, the Leinster, was sunk by torpedos from a German U-boat on October 10th 1918. This was dedicated by the Archbishop of Wales on Sunday July 18th, 1926.

The South Chapel was traditionally known as the Gwysaney Chapel due to the strong links with the Davies family of Gwysaney. The church contains many memorials and dedications to the Davies family over the centuries. The chapel was recently dedicated to St.John, the dedication of the former Welsh Church which closed in the 1950s to serve as a parish hall.