History

The oval churchyard and hill-top site suggest an early medieval foundation, but the late-medieval stoup and reclaimed roof bosses are the earliest surviving features. Architecturally the earliest part of the present building is the post-medieval W tower. The remainder of the church was restored 1843 and 1876, then rebuilt in 1895-6 (date on rainwater heads) by E.M. Bruce Vaughan, architect of Cardiff.

Exterior

A simple Perpendicular-style church comprising nave, lower and narrower chancel, S porch and N vestry. Of rubble stone with slate roofs behind coped gables, and with moulded stone cornice to nave and chancel. The lower late C19 porch has a pointed doorway with continuous moulding and hood mould, and double boarded doors with strap hinges. The side walls have a square-headed single-light window. The nave S wall has two 2-light square-headed windows with cusped ogee lights. Both nave and chancel have rainwater heads dated 1895 in the S elevation. The chancel has a cusped window set back from the E end, a 3-light E window with hood mould, and a N window corresponding to the S window and on the E side of the vestry. The vestry has a 2-light N window and lintelled W doorway with boarded door. The N wall of the nave has 3 square-headed 2-light windows similar to the S side.

The 2-stage tower is battered at the base and has a plinth band, above which is a deeply recessed window in the W wall. A narrow loop is above this window. The upper stage has narrow lintelled belfry openings with louvres. The embattled parapet projects on a simple corbel table, and behind it is a saddleback roof with apex weathervane.

Interior

The nave has a 4-bay arched-brace roof. The chancel arch has 2 orders of continuous chamfer and hood mould. The 3-bay arched-brace chancel roof has foliage bosses salvaged from the earlier medieval roof. An organ recess on the N side of the chancel has 2 orders of chamfer dying into the imposts. To its R is a pointed vestry door. A similar pointed tower doorway is at the W end of the nave.

A C15 bracket stoup survives on the R side of the S door, with a fine chip-carved design very similar to fonts at Llantrisant, Llanharry and Pyle. Other fixtures are C19 or later. The font has an octagonal bowl on detached marble shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. The simple polygonal wooden pulpit has blind Gothic panels. Pews and choir stalls have moulded ends, while the communion rail has twisted iron uprights with scrollwork brackets, to a moulded wooden hand rail. A panelled wooden reredos has brattishing behind the altar. In the SE corner of the nave is a war memorial in the form of an alabaster wall tablet. Other memorials, retained from the earlier church, were set up in the chancel. In the S wall is an alabaster wall tablet by Phillips of Talgarth, to Rev Lewis Price (d 1812) and his family erected c1865. Next to it is a polished granite wall tablet to Watkin Rhys (d 1880). Brass plaques dated 1886 either side of the E window commemorate the Morgan and Harris families of Bodwigiad.

Several windows have stained glass. The E window, of 1896 and showing the Ascension, and the contemporary S chancel window depicting the Presentation at the Temple, were designed by Henry Holiday and made by Powell's of London. The N chancel window shows the Virgin Mary and is in the style of Edward Burne Jones. In the nave the S wall has SS David and Andrew at the E end, which commemorates the engineer and manager of the Dowlais ironworks William Menelaus (1818-83), and Faith and Charity to the W of 1947 by Powell's(?). In the N wall of the nave, the E window has male and female figures of c1919, the W window is a late C20 replacement depicting SS Peter and Paul.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as a parish church on a medieval hilltop site, retaining a post-medieval tower characteristic of the district and internal detail including a medieval stoup and good late C19 glass. The church is the centrepiece of a strong visual group including the chuchyard wall, The Rectory, and a well-preserved signpost.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29495593

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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