Church of St Brothen

Church of St Brothen

This is a parish church of rectangular, single-cell type, grade I listed. It is well-constructed of large roughly-squared blocks of local stone, with snecking and levelling courses, built on a slightly splayed stone plinth. The church is roofed with fine old heavy, graded slates, featuring slab-coped gable parapets and large, primitive kneelers. The oak wall plate is visible externally on the south and north sides.

The west gable has a twin-arched bellcote with slab-coped and kneelered gable and projecting cill-course. A large pointed-arched lancet serves as the west window, with a deep, rendered outer splay. The single-storey porch is gabled and roofed in matching materials, with a pointed-arched opening and slatted outer door. The main door has a 19th-century boarded front in an arched opening; a medieval or sub-medieval plank structure is visible on its inner face.

The south side features paired 19th-century arched, leaded windows, with a plain rectangular window towards the east, probably 15th century, which retains its original iron grille and leaded glazing. The north side has a similar window with two paired 19th-century windows as before. A blocked north entrance with pointed arch is striking for its voussoirs, which are formed of long, thin slate stones. The east end has an original triple lancet group, the central one being larger, with wide, deep outer splays and early, probably original iron grilles and leaded glazing.

Interior

The interior comprises a long, continuous nave and chancel. The roof is a fine second-half 15th-century eight-bay arched-braced collar-truss construction, with two tiers of small, double-cusped windbraces and chamfered principals; 19th-century rafters have been added. The ground level slopes noticeably from west to east and is finished with a Victorian quarry tiled floor, counter-changed red and black.

The nave contains 19th-century grained boxed pews with earlier pews at the west end. These earlier pews are made up from 17th- and 18th-century box pews that were re-justified and relocated in the 19th century; they have arcaded and turned baluster backs, and some are panelled with ball-finial newels. Late 17th-century bobbin-turned altar rails, now relocated, enclose a small vestry space at the southwest corner. Immediately to the east of the entrance is a post-type, iron-banded poor box, probably 17th century.

The 15th-century octagonal stone font is of simple, conventional Perpendicular type, with a 17th-century conical oak cover; it has an iron-banded base and double ball-finalled top. A simple 17th-century octagonal oak pulpit (door missing) and a similar reading desk dated 1671 with initials TW are present; both have plain trefoil finials to their ends.

A primitive and unusual medieval oak rood screen has a central entrance and four flanking openings to each side. The compound-pier type posts have simple capitals and bases of Transitional or early Gothic character. The decoration includes stiff-leafed and dog-tooth derivative carving with cable-work decoration to the left-hand main post, and crude geometric piercings to the dado section. The moulded beam has a 19th-century replacement top. Set between the principals of the third truss from the east and above the screen at wall plate level is a primitive rood beam that appears to post-date the screen. It has multiple shallow, triangular arches and is primitively carved. At the centre, three spaced dowel holes are discernible, probably relating to the former pre-Reformation attachment of a sculpted rood group.

The stepped-up chancel contains 18th-century enclosed pews, four to each side, again with turned baluster backs. The stepped-up altar has a reredos consisting of a pair of late medieval newel posts supporting a carved beam, dated to the 15th century, relocated and possibly by Clough Williams-Ellis, to whom this church belonged. The newels have octagonal finials and the beam is carved with a vinescroll motif in relief; grooves on its underside suggest an alternative original context.

Monuments and Furnishings

Slate mural tablets commemorate local families and individuals. These include tablets to the Jones family of Ynysfor, with one by Laurie Crib from 1940, and another commemorating the children of John Jones, who died in 1797 and 1798, set in a wooden frame with crude fictive marbling. A similar tablet honours Andrew Poynter, described as "late Officer of ye Custom House", who died in 1802. Further engraved slate tablets record John Isaak of Parc (died 1733) and John Edmunds, Farmer, of Parc (died 1800).