Church of St Eleth

The Church of St Eleth is a neo-classical church with some late gothic details, dating from the 18th century. The church’s construction uses roughly coursed and graded rubble with tooled ashlar dressings, topped with a shallow pitched slate roof. The west tower is a central feature, set into a pedimented west wall of the nave, and is articulated by angle pilasters. The tower’s west entrance is a simple arch with an oculus above; the foiled tracery within this oculus was added in the later 19th century. A clock sits above the entrance, and the upper stage of the tower has louvred bell-chamber lights. A fine balustraded parapet features angle piers surmounted by shaped pinnacles. West windows are set high and have Perpendicular tracery that was introduced to the original openings. The return elevations of the nave have angle pilasters, a plinth, a string course, and a modillion cornice. Round-arched windows are set in ashlar surrounds with inserted plate tracery, which may be a modern renewal of a 19th-century feature. The east end is pedimented with a string course across the gable and a continuation of the modillion cornice, and features a shallow arched window dating from around 1800, again with later inserted tracery in an elaborate two-tier, five-light scheme.

The church’s nave and aisles are the result of a 19th-century restoration, which introduced three-bay arcades with double chamfered arches on octagonal shafts with moulded bases and capitals, springing from corbels with superimposed carved heads at the west end. A chancel was created in the 19th century by subdividing the east end to form a shallow chancel, flanked by a chapel and an organ chamber (the organ having been removed for re-siting on the gallery). The chancel arch springs from the more ornate eastern responds of the arcade, while the side arches spring from corbels with superimposed carved hands. Original moulded cornices survive on the north and south sides. Above the simple plastered ceilings, the original roof structure remains intact, consisting of a close-spaced series of braced king-post and collar trusses, entirely independent of the arcade below. Simple stained glass emblems are found in the east window, dating from the later 19th century. Various memorial stones, mainly re-sited from an earlier church, include those commemorating Captain David Lloyd of Llwydiarth (1651), Howell Lewis of Gwredog (d. 1683), and William and Anne Lewis of Trysglwyn (d. 1743 and 1744). Located in the base of the tower is a late 16th-century slab tombstone originally found in the churchyard. A marble and mosaic memorial to Jane Pritchard and her son Thomas Lewis, who died in 1914, is found in the sanctuary. In 1999, a west gallery, baptistry, and flanking meeting rooms were introduced as alterations.