Church of St Baglan

Church of St Baglan

This is a single-roofed church comprising a nave and chancel with a large south transeptal chapel built to the same roof height, a north porch, and a west bellcote. The chancel walls are of coursed rough ashlar, whilst the remainder of the building is constructed in rubblestone with gritstone quoins. A straight vertical joint marks the division between nave and chancel. All slate roofs rise to the same ridge height, with coped gables; the chancel gable bears a weather-worn gable cross. This cross was described by Lewis in 1833 as "the remains of an ancient Cross curiously sculptured" but may date from the construction of the chancel itself.

The nave contains no windows. The chancel has only one window opening to the east: a 14th-century two-light window with a quatrefoil head and two trefoiled lights. The south chapel has small two-light windows in both its east and south end walls, each with simple round-headed lights and flat dripstone mouldings. The west end of the nave is windowless and has a simple gabled bellcote with a pointed opening; no bell is present.

The broad north porch has stone side walls and an open front gable displaying the head of a medieval roof truss with an arch-braced collar and cusped apex. The massive chamfered purlins and other beams appear to have been reused from the original chancel. Two 13th-century gravestones have been repurposed to form the head and sill of a long east window opening in the porch. The sill bears an incised foliated cross and ship, likely the gravestone of a sailor. A narrow plank door fills a plain pointed doorway.

The interior is roughly plastered and whitewashed, with whitewashed roof timbers. The floor comprises slate slabs of varying sizes. The nave walls are battered. The nave roof spans three bays with arch-braced collar-trusses, chamfered beneath, and straight wind braces in the lowest panels of a double-purlin roof. An early 6th-century inscribed stone forms the lintel to the rear arch of the doorway, having been moved there in 1834. This roughly quadrangular pillar-stone is inscribed in Roman capitals within an incised oblong with the text "FILI LOVERNII / ANATEMORI".

The chancel is undivided from the nave and has an elliptical plaster ceiling springing from a moulded cornice. The 14th-century east window has been reset and retains its sill, which is contemporary with the chancel.

The south chapel opens fully to the main body of the church and is spanned by a heavy main wall-plate beam carrying the last two trusses of the nave. The chapel measures approximately 4.6 metres by 5.5 metres and has a two-bay roof with two broad arch-braced collar-trusses. Chamfered purlins are let into the trusses, and cusped wind braces occur on two levels. The east and south windows are hollow-moulded with splayed reveals. To the right of the east window is a rough stone bracket projecting approximately 25 centimetres at a height of about 1.5 metres above floor level.

An exceptional mid to late 18th-century set of furnishings survives. The oak communion table dates from the 18th century and features slender turned legs and a moulded front stretcher. Eighteenth-century communion rails enclose the table on three sides, with slender turned balusters, moulded rails, and corner posts bearing shaped finials. In the chancel's southwest corner stands a large tiered oak pulpit and reading desk with a sounding board, all panelled with beaded framing to fielded panels. The pulpit has a canted front facing into the south transept and is inscribed "I 1767 RW". Seating in the nave, chancel, and south chapel dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. Several box pews feature plain framing, whilst fixed benches have round shaped ends or are plain oak benches with splayed feet. Many are inscribed with initials and dates: four bench ends are inscribed "I.G.,Esq. 1737"; a large box pew on the south chapel's west side has an enriched top rail; three nave benches are inscribed "I / DM / 1769"; one bench-end reads "N / RK / 1763"; another similar bench and three plain benches are inscribed "Sr WO / 1777" and are said to have belonged to Sir William Owen of Bodern and Orielton; and a south chapel east box pew bears "WHA 1808". The font, believed to date from the 13th or 14th century, is a plain heptagonal bowl of gritstone mounted on a rough heptagonal shaft.

Numerous 18th-century slate memorials are present. On the north wall of the nave are tablets to Hugh Lewis (died 1731) and his wife Ellen, John Lewis (died 1709) with his brother and four sisters who died young, and John Morris (died 1807). The east wall of the chancel, to the right of the communion table, bears a slate tablet to Gwen Lewis (died 1738). On the west wall of the south chapel is a slate tablet to Lewis Morris (died 1707) and his wife Elin (died 1716).