Church of St Aelhaearn

Church of St Aelhaearn

This is a cruciform church constructed with flush pointed local stone rubble on large boulder foundations and slate roofs. The walls are low. The west gable carries a tall plain gabled bellcote with a single bell dated 1749 set in a rectangular opening. The west door is round-arched, dating from the 14th century and replacing an earlier south door which is now blocked.

The church has small paired round-headed windows with ashlar heads and chamfered mullions. Both transepts are coped and have similar paired lights, with taller windows in the gable ends. On the north side, a vestry was added in 1892 and is gabled to the west, with similar windows. The south transept has a built-in stone reading IT 1622.

The chancel has been rebuilt and is raised over falling ground. It contains reset medieval triple deep-set east lancets under a horizontal drip moulding. Below, a door opens to a graveyard maintenance store beneath the floor.

Opposite the west end stands a reset standing stone, probably dating from the 7th to 9th century and recorded earlier as having an incised cross.

Interior

The nave comprises 2 bays with a roof supported by three medieval heavy arch-braced trusses of almost cruck-like form that taper up from within the walls and carry 2 tiers of purlins with windbraces. The walls are plastered and have a panelled dado with a wood block floor. The same early truss form is repeated in both transepts and the chancel, which is entered by a low springing wide limestone arch. The rebuilt chancel is lined with brick, now whitewashed, and has open ashlared eaves. It is raised four steps above the crossing and ends with a quarry tiled sanctuary. A serving table is set in a wall niche on the south side.

The chancel screen dates from the 15th century but was restored in the 19th century. It has traceried openings either side of the wider central arch and a moulded central rail with raised fleurons. The font by the west door is 19th-century limestone, octagonal with a panelled spire cover. The pulpit dates from the late 18th or early 19th century, is panelled and square with angled corners, with panels engraved with a star motif. The lectern is a brass eagle dated 1901. The church retains a full and impressive set of early 19th-century low box pews with spindle galleries around the tops. At the west end a wall cupboard occupies the recess of the blocked south door and has, at its side, a chunky medieval corbelled stoup. The vestry retains sections of panelling with various inscriptions. Two banks of 19th-century choir stalls, 5 each side of the chancel, are fitted with oil lamp brackets above.

Monuments

In the north transept: an important inscribed early Christian gravestone of c.500 AD to Eiliorth Fyddai of the Kingdom of Elmet (Yorkshire), now mounted horizontally on the wall, inscribed ALIORTVS ELMETIACO(s) / HICIACET. A painted slate tablet commemorates J Evans, rector and benefactor here from 1696–1701, who was translated as Bishop of Bangor from 1701–15. A slate tablet commemorates Griffiths Lewis Williams, died 1938. A slate tablet engraved with an inscription commemorates Edward Davies, died 1742.

In the south transept: a brass with 16-quartered arms to Catherine Glyn of Elernion, died 1702; a marble-framed slate wall tablet to Thomas Lee of Elernion, died 1876 and family; and a marble tablet to Rev W G Jones, rector from 1922–1947.