Church of St Cawrdaf

Church of St Cawrdaf

This Grade I listed church comprises a nave and chancel in a single cell, with a large added north aisle. It is built of irregular rubble stonework with large quoins and sandstone dressings to the openings.

The exterior displays an unmoulded pointed west door set in the coped west gable, which rises to a tall gabled bellcote carried on a corbel table. The nave has two three-light trefoil-headed windows under label moulds, and a similar two-light west window to the chancel. The east end has a large five-light window with casement jambs and panel tracery. A large raking buttress obscures the junction with the north aisle and incorporates some reused tracery at its head. The north aisle, which was added around 1520 based on comparison with Llangwnadl Church, has a similar three-light panel tracery window with simply chamfered jambs. A small door, inserted around 1600, is set centrally to the north side.

The interior comprises ten roof bays defined by arch-braced collar beam trusses dating from the 11th, 15th or early 16th century, rising from stone corbels. Cusped raking struts are present in all but the two most easterly trusses, where an original ceiling is assumed. Two tiers of purlins and exposed rafters are visible. A single step up defines the chancel, with a further step into the sanctuary, both having 19th-century encaustic floor tiles. The four-bay arcade opens to the eight-bay north aisle, featuring octagonal columns with recessed angles on each face and ovolo capitals carrying depressed arches of two chamfered orders, characteristic of the area. The eight similar trusses of the aisle lack cusped upper parts, with corbels existing on the arcade side only. The west bay is partitioned off as a vestry. An additional corbel carved with the letters RE above the east pier corresponds to a similar corbel on the chancel side dated 1615, with stubs of others suggesting an earlier roofing system.

The fittings include a softwood altar rail with side cusped panels; a 19th-century octagonal pulpit with a ballflower-enriched cornice set on a stone base; and a two-sided 19th-century readers desk. The lectern is free-standing. The nave pews are 19th-century, but the north aisle contains a very fine group of five 15th-century stalls with miserecords carved with roses and lilies and arms carved with upturned masks. There is a corresponding book desk, three stalls long, with a carved frontal and a carved pew end in the form of two clerics standing back to back, each displaying a shield. It has been claimed that these stalls came from either the pilgrimage church at Clynnog or from Bardsey. The font is a small octagonal bowl, probably medieval but remounted in the 19th century.

The stained glass includes an east window depicting Our Lord and the four Evangelists, dated around 1880, in memory of Margaret Evans of Broom Hall; a south-side eastern window of 1924 commemorating Rev David Jones, vicar, who died in 1926, donated by his children; an east window of the north aisle depicting Faith, Hope and Charity, dated 1885, to Margaret Casson of Blaidd Bwll; and an east window of the north side with interesting glass of around 1894 in memory of Rhoda Carreg of Carreg.

The monuments on the south wall, from east, comprise: a white classical aedicule against a black field with scrolls and husks in pilasters and pediment and a stag crest below, probably by Hale of London, commemorating William Jones of Broom Hall, died 1857; a similar and contemporary monument signed by W T Hale of Baker Street, London, commemorating Rowland Jones of Broom Hall, died 1773; and a Carrara marble war memorial on black honouring one soldier killed in the Great War and seven in the Second World War. In the chancel are ledger slabs: an important 13th-century slab bearing a Celtic stepped cross over a shield with a diagonal sword and mullets on each side below; a ledger to Griffith Jones of Tanialld, died 1695, John Jones, died 1776, Katherine Jones, died 1777 and others; and a ledger to Maurice Williams of Bryn Gule, died 1692, John Lloyd, died 1692 and Margaret Owen, died 1764.