Church of St Buan

The Church of St Buan is a large, cruciform neo-Romanesque church built in the 18th century using unpainted stucco, with red sandstone dressings. It features a prominent square crossing tower and short transepts and chancel. The building is capped with gabled slate roofs, sandstone copings, and decorative cross finials. All openings are round-headed, with moulded details including attached shafts and cushion capitals, and contain leaded lights. The nave has two bays, while the transepts and chancel each have a single bay. The windows are recessed with roll-moulded arches, hoodmoulds, and inset shafts, with larger windows in the gable ends. The west end has a triple arched window above a large, flat-roofed, corniced porch. This porch is decorated with similar mouldings to the west entry and broad side arches over a triple-arched entrance with column shafts. The central tower has triple arched, louvred belfry windows with attached shafting but without hoodmoulds. The tower’s exterior features flush ashlar angle strips, a moulded cornice, sandstone battlements and a heavier moulded cornice below the bell stage, with a roundel and double band at the ridge level of the roofs. A projecting stair turret is located on the northwest side, with a flat cap below the bell stage and slim arched stair lights. A door is located on the north side. A small gabled vestry is attached to the north side of the nave, within the second bay, with a coped gable, arched west door, and small arched north and east windows.

Inside, the church is dominated by broad, chevron-moulded arches at the crossing, supported by large, paired round columns with florid capitals. The tower roof features short column shafts at the angles, resting on carved corbels with ornate capitals. The roofs have arch-braced collar trusses, except for the second bay of the nave, which has boarding to an arched roof likely dating from 1911. The west end of the nave has an organ gallery with an arched sandstone central door and paired arched marble plaques on either side, accessed by a pine newel stair from the lobby. The church houses a twin oak-cased organ by Walker & Sons, installed in 1911, with timber blind arcading to the gallery front. The lobby features round arched stone arcading on the left and right sides, and an open area on the right containing a four-sided stone font, a limestone pedestal with an urn commemorating W Knight (1678-1754), and fourteen 19th-century embossed steel-plate wall memorials. Doors to the vestry and stair are located on the left side, while boarded doors lead to the nave. Red sandstone window surrounds feature in the chancel and transepts, with moulded arches, column shafts, and carved capitals. The pulpit, reading desk, and altar-rail are constructed from oak with round arcading, and the oak pews have low boarded backs. A marble altar with six round legs and ogee sides is also present. The north chancel window contains stained glass depicting Christ's Promise, given by F G Wynn in 1898 in memory of the 3rd Baron Newborough. The south chancel window depicts the Ascension, and the north transept's east window depicts St Cadfan. The north transept wall displays two white marble memorials and three wall tablets commemorating members of the Wynn family. The belfry is accessed by a stone stair from the north transept and contains seven bells from an earlier building, two dated 1754 and one 1774.