A Guide to the Churches and Chapels of Wales
228
A Guide to the Churches and Chapels of Wales
228Paperback
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780708321188 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Wales Press |
| Publication date: | 08/30/2011 |
| Pages: | 228 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
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A Guide to the Churches and Chapels of Wales
By Jonathan M. Wooding, Nigel Yates
University of Wales Press
Copyright © 2011 The ContributorsAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7083-2118-8
CHAPTER 1
Churches and Chapels in Mid Wales
1. ABBEY CWMHIR (St Mary), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: off the A483, 7 miles north of Llandrindod Wells.
Access: generally open.
Cistercian abbey in this remote valley, founded in 1143, which had the largest church in Wales, now almost completely destroyed. The old estate of the Fowlers passed in the mid-nineteenth century to the Phillips family of Manchester, and it was Miss Phillips who paid for the new church built in 1866–7. The architects were John Wilkes Poundley, surveyor of Montgomeryshire, and David Walker of Birkenhead. It has all the character one would expect from them. It is of knobbly brownish stone, in Early French Gothic style. The porch is within a tower which turns broached, and then into an octagonal spirelet, with a ring of colonnettes between. The relief of the Ascension over the door is copied from a tympanum which may have come from the abbey. The east window has a gable over it, interrupting the apsidal chancel roof. Within, the chancel arch, pulpit and font are richly carved. Especially wonderful is the glass in the apse windows, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, to the design of Robert Turnill Bayne (1866). It is of Pre-Raphaelite intensity, with rich browns, greens and purples. The scene of Christ's Agony in the Garden is particularly fine. The glass in the west window is by Clayton and Bell. Poundley and Walker also designed the Hall, built in 1867, gabled and bargeboarded, with a striped slate roof. The diarist Francis Kilvert much admired it.
2. ABEREDW (St Cewydd), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: in village, on the west side of the B4567, 3 miles south-east of Builth Wells.
Access: key holder advertised on notice board.
A large, late medieval church, with a west tower and a handsome north porch. Both nave and chancel roofs are medieval, that of the chancel being ceiled in a style more familiar in south-west England. Nave and chancel are separated by a screen, the lower part of which dates from the fifteenth century and the upper part from the seventeenth century. The wrought iron altar rails date from the early nineteenth century. An unusual survival is two flutes and a pitch pipe that belonged to the musicians who accompanied the church choir before the installation of the organ.
NY
3. BEULAH (Eglwys Oen Duw – Church of the Lamb of God), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: off the A483, 1 mile north of Beulah.
Access: generally open.
In such a remote location, one is surprised to find this strikingly elaborate Victorian church, in blue and grey stone, with a tall Germanic fleche. It was built by the Thomas family of Llwyn Madoc. The architect was John Norton. The exterior is in plain Early English, but the interior is colourful, with polychrome brick, tiles and a mosaic reredos. There is good Clayton and Bell glass in the grouped lancets of east and west windows, and two sanctuary windows are by Burlison and Grylls (c.1877). The pulpit is of wrought iron, the choir stalls are carved and there are brass candelabra. Note the brass sconces in the form of water lilies, complete with frogs. There are three fonts, one by Norton, and two early medieval ones from demolished churches.
PH
4. BLEDDFA (St Mary Magdalene), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: on main road A488 to Llandrindod Wells, 5 miles south-west of Knighton.
Access: generally open.
The church comprises a single-cell nave and chancel of c.1400 with an eighteenth-century south porch and a simple wooden belfry at the west end of the nave, which was partitioned off in c.1800 to serve as a schoolroom. The interior is covered by a fifteenth-century roof. The pulpit and altar rails date from the seventeenth century. The church was attractively restored in 1977 by G. G. Pace, according to a scheme which allowed the furnishings to be moveable, so that the church could be used for concerts and exhibitions.
NY
5. BRECON/ABERHONDDU (Cathedral of St John the Evangelist), Church in Wales
Powys (B)
Location: on the west side of town above the River Honddu near the ruins of the former castle, now mostly incorporated into the Castle Hotel.
Access: open daily 9 a.m.–5.30 p.m.
This large cruciform former priory church, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was made the cathedral of the new diocese of Swansea and Brecon at its creation in 1923. An extensive restoration of the interior had been carried out by George Gilbert Scott between 1861 and 1875, and a further restoration, designed to make the building work as a cathedral, was carried out by W. D. Caröe in 1927–37. The very attractive interior is dominated by an east window of five lancets. There is a particularly handsome twelfth-century font and an even more handsome thirteenth-century sedilia and triple piscina. Most of the present furnishings are by either Scott or Caröe, those of the latter being the more successful. They include the magnificent new reredos to the high altar, designed to replicate a reredos of c.1500, filled with statuary. The chapel of St Keyne is separated from the nave by an early sixteenth-century parclose screen, to which have been attached bosses from the former choir ceiling. The former north transeptal chapels were in 1923 adapted to serve as the regimental chapel of the South Wales Borderers. In the south transept is a seventeenth-century cupboard incorporating carved panels of c.1500 said to have come from Neath Abbey. Parts of a fifteenth- century screen have also been incorporated into the pulpit.
The overall atmosphere of the cathedral is one of great spaciousness and liturgical formality. Substantial remains of the former priory buildings also remain incorporated into the largely nineteenth-century deanery and canonry houses. The former tithe barn has been converted to serve as a shop, exhibition area and restaurant, designed to meet the needs of visitors to the cathedral.
NY
6. CAPEL-Y-FFIN (St Mary), Church in Wales
Powys (B)
Location: on a side road to Llanthony, 6 miles south of Hay-on-Wye.
Access: generally open.
An extremely modest chapel-of-ease built in 1762 and with a south porch added in 1817. The furnishings are largely contemporary and comprise a simple pulpit of 1780, domestic settles instead of pews, altar rails and a gallery along the north wall reached by a staircase at the west end. There is a crude medieval font of uncertain date. The interior was insensitively carpeted, covering the stone flags, in 1991. Nearby is the former Anglican monastery (now a private house) designed by Charles Buckeridge for Father Ignatius of Llanthony in the 1870s and later occupied by the artists Eric Gill and David Jones.
NY
7. CARDIGAN/ABERTEIFI (Our Lady of the Taper), Roman Catholic
Cere.
Location: in the northern suburbs of Cardigan, on the main Aberystwyth road.
Access: generally open.
The church, with its attached free-standing shrine housing a miraculous statue of Our Lady, is an impressive piece of modern architecture designed by Weightman and Bullen of Liverpool in 1970 to provide a worthy setting for the new liturgy authorised by the Second Vatican Council. The furnishings and stained glass are of good quality with a spacious sanctuary being located under a funnel-like tower. The complex includes an attached presbytery and is one of very few examples of modern church architecture in rural Wales.
NY
8. CARNO (St John the Baptist), Church in Wales
Powys (M)
Location: in village, on the A470, midway between Newtown and Machynlleth.
Access: key available from the Post Office.
Opposite the Aleppo Merchant inn, on the road from Newtown to Machynlleth, is the characterful church of 1863 by J. W. Poundley and David Walker. It replaced a medieval church of which bits survive. It is a rich example of the architects' work, and it is tragic that the funny wooden belfry, painted maroon, has been removed from the amazing little tower, which, like the rest of the church, is of lumpy grey stone with red and yellow dressings. The windows have striking plate tracery. The division between nave and chancel is marked on the outside by frilly ironwork, and on the inside by a big timber arch resting on pairs of colonnettes.
PH
9. CASCOB (St Michael), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: by itself on a side road off the B4357, 4 miles west of Presteigne.
Access: generally open.
A small, largely fourteenth-century church, with a west tower and timber belfry, typical of Powys. The church underwent a model restoration in 1878 in which the fourteenth-century octagonal font, the fifteenth-century roof and the early sixteenth-century screen, with the panelled parapet of the rood loft still in situ, were retained. There is a memorial to a former long-serving incumbent, William Jenkins Rees, the distinguished Celtic scholar, who died in 1855.
NY
10. CREGRINA (St David), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: on a side road off the A481, 4 miles east of Builth Wells.
Access: generally open.
The church comprises a thirteenth-century nave and a wider fifteenth-century chancel, set at an angle to it, both of which were sensitively restored in 1903. Nave and chancel are separated by a simple sixteenth-century screen. The crude font is probably of the twelfth century. The chancel was repaired by G. G. Pace in 1958 and the external walls white-washed.
NY
11. DISSERTH (St Cewydd), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: on a side road between the A483 and the B4358, 2 miles south-west of Llandrindod Wells.
Access: generally open.
The church comprises a single-cell broad nave and chancel of the fifteenth century with a west tower. Its external walls are whitewashed and it retains one of the most complete late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century interiors in Wales. The three-decker pulpit, dated 1687, is placed in the middle of the south wall, with an open space to the east of it. The box pews, erected by the owners of the various properties in the parish and dated between 1666 and 1722, are arranged higgledy-piggledy, many of them painted with the names of their former owners. The altar is railed in against the east wall, with pews on either side of it. There are fragmentary remains of seventeenth-century wall paintings. The floor of the church is still laid with fresh straw to keep the building warm.
NY
12. DOLANOG (Ann Griffiths Memorial Chapel), Calvinistic Methodist
Powys (M)
Location: in village on the B4382, 12 miles west of Welshpool and 6 miles south-west of Llanfyllin.
Access: generally open.
The chapel was built in 1903, to a design by G. Dickens-Lewis of Shrewsbury, as a memorial to the well-known writer of hymns. It maintains the traditional liturgical arrangement, with all seating facing the pulpit and communion enclosure, but the detail of the woodwork, the windows and the overall ethos is firmly part of the Arts and Crafts movement of the early twentieth century. A small Sunday schoolroom, again preserving its original furnishings, is separated from the main body of the chapel by folding doors.
NY
13. ELERCH (St Peter), Church in Wales
Cere.
Location: on a side road off the A487, 8 miles north-east of Aberystwyth.
Access: key available from the house opposite the church.
The idyllic and remote Leri valley is an unexpected place to find an important Victorian church. It was built by the Revd Lewis Gilbertson, vice-principal of Jesus College, Oxford, who had spent his youth here, and his sisters. As at Llangorwen, he employed William Butterfield as his architect, though here to build a new church, in 1865–8. Although not large, it is tough and ingeniously articulated, with a pyramidal-roofed tower over the choir, around which the complex series of roof shapes is tightly composed. The priest's vestry on the north-east has a circular window, and on the south is a curious tall, narrow transept. It is a pity that the rough local rubble is almost all rendered. The interior is severe, but the excellent east window glass (1868) is by Butterfield's favourite maker, Alexander Gibbs. The reredos is tiled, and the font is of grey marble. Until recently, worship was still ultra-Tractarian, with men and women sitting on opposite sides, and Gregorian chant. The steep-roofed school opposite, with flèche, is by G. E. Street (1856), and the vicarage (1874) is by John Prichard.
PH
14. GLASCWM (St David), Church in Wales
Powys (M)
Location: on a side road, 1 mile east of Cregrina (see above).
Access: generally open.
The church, dating largely from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and comprising a single-cell nave and chancel with a west tower, is the successor of a former clas church. The interior was over-restored in 1891 but still retains a magnificent contemporary roof, ceiled over the eastern bay of the nave and the whole of the chancel. The font is also contemporary with the building and the church has a good ensemble of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century wall tablets by local craftsmen.
NY
15. GUILSFIELD/CEGIDFA (St Aelhaiarn), Church in Wales
Powys (R)
Location: in village on the B4392, 2 miles north of Welshpool.
Access: generally open.
This is one of the largest medieval churches in Mid Wales. The west tower, nave and western portion of the chancel date from c.1300. The south aisle and the two-storey south porch were added in c.1400, and in the late fifteenth century the north aisle was added and the chancel extended eastwards. The chancel and eastern bay of the nave are still covered by a magnificent ceiled roof and much of the timber in the other roofs is also original. The church was very well restored by G. E. Street in 1877–9, largely at the expense of the patrons, Christ Church, Oxford. Street provided the screen, pulpit, low pews, reredos and carved altar table. The altar is raised on steps laid with Minton tiles. The octagonal font is probably thirteenth century. The lean-to hearse house against the south porch dates from 1739.
NY
16. HAFOD (St Michael), Church in Wales
Cere.
Location: by itself on the B4574, 2 miles south-east of Devil's Bridge.
Access: generally open.
The church was built in 1803 by Thomas Johnes to serve his family and estate workers. It was burned down in 1932 and rebuilt in 1933 by W. D. Caröe who provided the attractive limed woodwork, comprising the pews, pulpit, north transept screen, lectern, choir stalls, altar rails and sanctuary panelling. Rescued from the first church were the font of 1792, some fragments of sixteenth-century Flemish stained glass from the former east window and part of the monument to Thomas Johnes's daughter by the distinguished sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey. This had been commissioned in 1812 for £3,150. The house at Hafod was demolished in 1956, but the estate provides a selection of way-marked trails known respectively as the Lady's, Gentleman's and New Walks, laid out between 1789 and 1805.
NY
17. HENFYNYW (St David), Church in Wales
Cere.
Location: on the A487, 1 mile south of Aberaeron.
Access: service on Sundays at 10 a.m.
Henfynyw is probably the Vetus Rubus which Rhygyfarch, in his Life of St David (c.1090), claims to have been the site of St David's education. The name Hen Fynyw ('old mynyw'–arguably a Welsh translation of Vetus Rubus) implies that the site is in some way a precursor to St David's main monastery of Menevia (Mynyw). For all its possible historic importance, Henfynyw nowadays is a modest church of simple nave and chancel, rebuilt in 1864–6 by Robert Jewell Withers, replacing an older two-cell structure. The building is of dark stone, dressed with ashlar, standing in a large churchyard, heavily set with modern burials. An ECM (c. sixth to ninth century AD) from the site records the name TIGE(I)RN[ACUS].
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Guide to the Churches and Chapels of Wales by Jonathan M. Wooding, Nigel Yates. Copyright © 2011 The Contributors. Excerpted by permission of University of Wales Press.
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Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsNotes on Contributors
Guides to Entries
Introduction
1. Churches and Chapels in Mid Wales
2. Churches and Chapels in North-East Wales
3. Churches and Chapels in North-West Wales
4. Churches and Chapels in South Wales
5. Churches and Chapels in South-East Wales
6. Churches and Chapels in South-West Wales
Guide to Further Reading
Glossary
List of Churches and Chapels
Index