Church Of St Tysilio

The Church of St Tysilio is a parish church dating from the 12th to 14th centuries, with 17th and 19th century alterations. It is constructed of sandstone rubble and ashlar, with Welsh and stone slate roofs and a sandstone spire. The building comprises a west tower, continuous nave and chancel, remnant of a north aisle at the north-west corner of the nave, a central north preaching transept, north chapel, north-east vestry, and south porch.

The west tower is mid-13th century and has three stages externally undivided. It stands on an unusually deep battered and moulded plinth approximately eight feet high, with an angle buttress at the east end of the south side where it meets the nave. The tower is topped by a recessed octagonal spire with roll mouldings at the angles, broached in stone slate to the tower corners. At the base of the spire, each cardinal face has one gabled central two-light opening with a two-centred arch containing single quatrefoil tracery above trefoil-headed and ogeed lights. The south wall has a square-headed opening above the plinth and, above the buttress, a sundial inscribed "SPV 1711". The second stage has a square-headed window in the west wall. On the north side above the plinth is a 17th century doorway with a two-centred head and a ledged studded door reached by stairs.

The north aisle has a plinth and diagonal buttress with off-sets. Its west window has a moulded label, two-centred head and three lights, two of which are cinquefoiled and the centre one trefoiled. A blocked north window has two cinquefoil lights in Y-tracery and no label. The roof is hipped. The north transept has a re-set restored four-light cinquefoiled window with a two-centred head and label stops, plain deep plinth, diagonal buttresses, verge and gable cross. The north chapel has a window like the west window of the north aisle, moulded plinth, weathered diagonal buttress to the north-east, moulded cornice and hipped roof. The vestry is 19th century with a two-light trefoiled east window and label stops.

The chancel has a high plain plinth up to a four-light trefoiled east window with a two-centred head. The south wall of the nave and chancel has, to the east of the porch, three evenly spaced square-headed windows of two trefoiled and ogeed lights with glazed spandrels. Between the right and centre windows is a chamfered square-headed opening with a 17th century nail-studded priest's door. Between the left and centre windows is a gabled three-light 14th century cinquefoil window, probably to light a former rood screen, with a two-centred head projecting above eaves level; beneath it is a blocked window opening. To the west of the porch is another gabled window above a two-light square-headed window; both are imitations, probably late 19th century, of the other windows to the east.

The south porch is 14th century with diagonal weathered buttresses, two-centred double-chamfered outer arch, label, gable cross and a pair of two-light square-headed ogeed and trefoiled openings, one to each return wall. Inside are a pair of stone side benches, a single-framed roof with six collar trusses, and a heavily worn water stoup on a capital. The 14th century double-chamfered two-centred south doorway has a studded door, possibly 17th century. Above the doorway is a niche with a cinquefoil head.

The interior has a continuous wagon roof with late 19th or early 20th century panelling to the nave and chancel. A four-bay arcade separates the nave and chancel from the northern adjunctions. The west bay is 12th century with a semi-circular arch and scalloped capitals. The 19th century centre two bays into the north transept have two-centred arches with double chamfers and foliated capitals. The 13th century eastern bay to the north chapel has a two-centred arch with two chamfered orders; the responds have attached shafts with moulded base and capitals.

The chancel has stained glass in the east window dated 1630, when it was probably assembled by Richard Scudamore whose monogram "Rs" appears with scenes of the Magi and Nativity. There are fragments of medieval glass in the spandrels of the easternmost window on the south side. A 17th century panelled dado runs around the east end. The 17th century communion rails project almost three yards from the east end, enclosing the altar on three sides. They have stick balusters, with turned balusters and ball finials to the corners and entry, and a top rail moulded on the underside. The south wall has a wall monument to 14 from the parish killed in the First World War and three in the Second World War. There are several other wall monuments to members of the Phelps and Ley families, late 18th to late 19th century, including one for William Henry Ley, 1815–87, parish priest for 46 years. A brass cross on the altar is inscribed to Augustin Ley, 1842–1911.

The nave has on the south side, at the liturgical junction with the chancel, an early 17th century pulpit in the form of an enclosed hexagon with a matching door on one side. It has four rows of panels: the bottom plain, the next with circular interlace design, then blank arches with Ionic capitals and pilasters, a frieze and scrolled brackets with acanthus decoration supporting a projecting desk with a chamfered zig-zag edge and stylised foliage. The tester is octagonal rather than hexagonal, with turned pendants to the angles. The underside has eight moulded ribs converging on a central rosette, and the sides have guilloche ornament and a dentilled moulded cornice. To the north of the pulpit is a desk, perhaps 17th century (obscured by Harvest Festival decoration at the time of re-survey in October 1985), with square panels and fluted borders.

On the north pier dividing the north chapel and north transept is a painted stone wall monument in the form of an aedicule for Helip Fox, died 1678. It has twisted columns, Ionic capitals, a broken pediment with cartouche-of-arms, acanthus brackets, skull and swags. The south window immediately west of the pulpit has stained glass, perhaps 15th century, with an inscription "...? me fecit" in black-letter and a Crucifixion.

The font is 19th century or re-cut, with an octagonal base, circular stem and octagonal bowl with curved underside. The western gallery is probably early 17th century, supported on three pilastered segmentally-headed bays with key pendants. The gallery front has four square panels with square projections in the centre of each border. The organ on the gallery was given by Sir William Mather in 1899 and restored in 1924. It has three bays, crocketted pinnacles and quatrefoil decoration with the inscription "ALLELUIA/ PRAISE YE THE LORD/ ALLELUIA". On the north side is a wall monument for Thomas Farmer Turville, died 1824, in the form of a tapering sarcophagus on clawed feet with an oval lid decorated with acanthus. The tower doorway is low and chamfered with a two-centred head.

The 19th century vestry contains a 17th century chest with square panels on the lid, front and ends. The north chapel, entered from the chancel through small two-leaved doors constructed of 17th century square panels, has a 14th century quadripartite rib vault rising from moulded corbels. It has a square-headed two-light east window like those in the chancel, into the vestry. Beneath the window is a recessed panel flanked by a pair of part-octagonal brackets.

The north transept is early 19th century with a two-centred arch to east and west. The south wall has a benefactions board of 1823 above the arcade. The north window has stained glass for Edward Jones and family who died between 1787 and 1861, depicting the Ascension with inscriptions "Ye men of faith" and "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven". A large wall monument on the west wall commemorates Thomas Symonds and his wife Penelope, died 1760 and 1771, by Thomas Symonds, died 1791. It has a moulded surround with a two-centred head, stone pedestal, slate back panel, and a marble centre with an advanced open pediment containing three cherubs, a life-sized bas-relief profile head with garland, an extremely long incised eulogy, and cartouche-of-arms. There are several other wall monuments to Dew, Powell, Gwillim and Prichard.

The north aisle has stained glass in the west window for members of the Symonds family who died 1869 to 1877, depicting Faith, Hope and Charity with the inscription "The greatest of these is Charity". On the north wall is a monument for William Powell, died 1680, in white marble with a moulded base, scroll and cartouche-of-arms, above which is an inscription and two cherubs pulling aside drapery to reveal an urn over a segmentally-pedimented baldacchino. On the west wall are other monuments to Turville, Powell and Crowther.

The dedication of the church to St Tysilio is, according to Pevsner, unique in England. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England refers to the church as that of St Tesiliog.