Welsh Newton is a village in the S of the county, a mile from the Welsh border. The closest towns are Monmouth, 3 miles to the S, and Ross-on-Wye, 7 miles to the NE. The Mally Brook, a tributary of the Wye, runs through the village. Welsh Newton is on the A466 road from Hereford to Monmouth, with the church at the village centre. St Mary's has a 13thc nave and chancel in one, separated internally by a 3-bay stone screen decorated with ballflower and dateable c.1330. There is a slender W tower with a small broach spire at the W end, and a S porch of the 14thc. The only Romanesque feature here is the font.

Welsh Newton is not recorded by name in the Domesday Survey. The church was held by the Kinights Templar until 1312, when it passed to the Knights Hospitaller.

RCHME notes that the font is of the 12thc or earlier, but that there are no structural features of that period.