Church of St Cynfarwy

The Church of St Cynfarwy is a simple rural church built in the Early Decorated style. It features a continuous nave and chancel with a south porch and a north-west gabled porch. Constructed of rubble masonry with freestone dressings, the church’s roof is covered with thin slates, with exposed joist ends, stone copings, shaped kneelers, decorative cross finials, and a dressed stone west gable bellcote bearing Tudor flower bosses at its base.

The nave and chancel each have two bays. The north wall contains a single two-light cusped and foiled window set within a steep gable, and a gabled porch facing west, its steep arched doorway featuring broach-stop chamfered angles. The south wall has a single Perpendicular-style window to the left (west) of three trefoil-headed lights within a rectangular frame. A south chapel is located to the right (east) and features a two-light foiled window set in a hollow-chamfered arch. A rough stone plaque bearing the date and initials “1664 / W B” is set into the gable apex above this window. The east window consists of three trefoils in cusped tracery over paired trefoil-headed lights within a pointed-arch, hollow-chamfered frame, topped with a hoodmould.

The inner porch door is a wide boarded door with ornate hinges set within a lambs tongue chamfered, pointed-archway. The nave and chancel are covered by a continuous 19th-century roof with exposed braced and collared chamfered trusses resting on shaped corbels, with angled braces over the collar. The south chapel has its own two-bay roof with braced and collared trusses. The church’s fittings are mostly 19th century. The chancel is raised by two steps, with a moulded rail supported by shaped stanchions with floriate brackets. A panelled reredos with chamfered angles is also present. The pulpit is distinguished by its angled corners and paired trefoil-headed panels on each face. A 12th-century font, a circular bowl with four panels of incised crossed lines within square panels, stands at the west end of the church. It is set on a 19th-century base consisting of a shaped column on a squared platform.

A bronze memorial tablet is set within an elaborate marble surround on the north wall of the south chapel. The tablet is surrounded by a moulded surround with flanking pilasters with scrolled supports surmounted by skulls. Above the tablet is a moulded arch containing a coat of arms surmounted by two helmeted heads – one with a closed visor, the other with an open one. The arch is broken at the apex, featuring a banner reading “DUW DDIGON” and a crown surmounted by a skull. A winged skull is set into a shaped recess with a scrolled base below the tablet. Two plainer marble memorial tablets are found on the north wall of the nave, near the chancel. One, surmounted by a deer set within a diamond plaque, is dedicated to Margaret Williams, wife of Richard Williams Gent, who died in 1764, and also Richard, who died in 1765. The second is in a shaped surround with a pointed head and on shaped corbels, commemorating Elenae Wynne, daughter of Robert Williams Eirianellt, who died between 1711 and 1712. A metal plaque inscribed with details of monies bequeathed by Catherine Roberts, who died in 1756, is set into the window sill of the north window. Stained glass depicting geometric patterns is set into the east window.