Church of St Rhedyw

Church of St Rhedyw

A small cruciform church built of coursed slatestone with very large quoins and ashlar dressings. The 19th-century slate roofs are gabled to the transepts. The windows are mostly flat and segmental-headed with simple chamfers; all tracery dates to the 19th century. Most windows lack labels. The gable parapets are coped with shaped kneelers.

An ashlar bellcote with chamfered arched opening and coped gable is topped with a wrought-iron cross finial. The south porch is single-storey and gabled with a coped parapet, chamfered arched opening, and side windows of paired trefoil-headed lights. The inner arch is double-chamfered with a 19th-century plank door. An opposed arched north doorway also has a 19th-century plank door.

Two windows to the right of the porch feature ogee trefoil-headed tracery: one is a 3-light window under a square head, the other a single lancet with cusped arched head. The west end has a single lancet with cusped arched head and ogee trefoil-headed tracery. The north side contains two identical lancets with cusped arched heads and ogee trefoil-headed tracery, and to their left a square-headed window with 2 trefoil-headed lights and Decorated tracery including mouchettes.

The chancel's three-light east window has panel tracery, a hollow-chamfered outer arch and label moulding with returns. The south transept south window has 3 lights with cusped ogee tracery and mullions running into the head of the arch. The east wall has a square-headed window with 3 cusped lights. The north transept north window has a hollow chamfer, 3 cusped lights with cusped ogee tracery and panel tracery in the head of the arch; a string course projects either side of the window.

Interior

The plaster has been stripped from the walls. The nave contains a fine 15th-century roof spanning 5 full bays and one half bay, likely marking the former position of the rood loft. The trusses spring from stone corbels, each with a continuously chamfered arch, arch bracing to the bases of principals, and a cranked collar with a pair of diagonal struts above. Pairs of purlins sit on the backs of principals, with 2 tiers of cusped windbraces. The truss against the west wall dates to the 19th century. Victorian boarding covers the rafters, but pegs to the wall-plate suggest the original rafters remain.

The two-bay chancel roof features a truss similar to those in the nave, with a boarded roof. A pair of blocked niches flank the east window, and a blocked piscina is set in the south wall. Above the crossing are 19th-century arch-braced trusses set diagonally. The transepts retain old roofs of 2 bays with arch-braced collar trusses and 19th-century purlins; the south transept trusses include struts above the collars.

The fittings are mainly 19th-century and were reordered in the 20th century. A 19th-century encaustic tile floor in the sanctuary is accompanied by wrought-iron and wooden altar rails, with a late 19th-century wooden altar. The north transept houses an organ and the remains of a 19th-century chancel screen cut down to form rails. A 19th-century polygonal wooden pulpit with traceried panels was cut down in the 20th century, and a matching reading desk with a traceried panel also remains. The benches are 19th-century.

An octagonal stone font features a 19th-century stem and wooden cover; the bowl is very plain and probably older. The east window contains stained glass commemorating Alice, wife of Thomas Robinson of Talysarn Hall (died 1897), in Pre-Raphaelite style with Christ in Majesty in the centre light and supporting female figures, including an angel, in the flanking lights.