Church of St Pedrog

Church of St Pedrog

This Grade II* listed church is built of large uncoursed rubble with yellow gritstone dressings, flush pointed with lime mortar, and has a slated roof between raised coped gables. The nave and chancel are of continuous but distinct builds, separated by a very fine early 16th-century oak screen with three bays either side of a central wider opening, all featuring stiff floriated tracery. The moulded middle rail of the screen is in two sections parted by openwork panels, with fleurons on the rails, some depicting birds.

The exterior windows date to the 19th century and feature ogee tracery: the nave has 1-light and 3-light windows, while the chancel has 2-light windows on its south side and a 2-light east window with elaborate curvilinear tracery. Dark igneous stone relieving arches frame these windows. The east window contains a recessed panel below with a reset late medieval cusped head. This recess displays the full arms with shield in pretence, mantling and crest of Love Parry of Cefn Llanfair, died 9 September 1707, all in very fine condition. The north side of the chancel has two 2-light 19th-century windows, while the west end features a high 2-light Y-tracery window.

The tower is added on the south side near the west end, constructed of snecked rubble with three undifferentiated stages above a plinth and a crenellated parapet. It features lancet windows with trefoil heads and 2-light belfry openings with timber louvres. The tower has a pyramidal slate roof and windvane. A vestry is attached to the west of the tower. The 20th-century extension has timber doors and applied diamond leading to the windows.

Interior

The nave and chancel form a single cell with plastered and whitewashed walls and a stone floor, boarded under the pews. The chancel is of three roof bays and has 19th-century arch-braced collar trusses with knee braces to wall posts on moulded stone corbels, with cusped top triangles. Exposed rafters and ashlars sit on wall plates. The sanctuary is reached by one step and is paved with 19th-century encaustic floor tiles. The nave comprises five bays with similar trusses, though alternate trusses lack wall posts. Windows are set low in the walls.

A small gallery at the west end, probably early to mid-19th century, is carried by two octagonal posts with an open balustrade and an access stair against the rear wall.

The church contains 19th-century fixtures including an octagonal font with panelled sides and base and an oak cover; an octagonal pulpit raised over three steps; a pine altar rail on scrolled iron stanchions; and 19th-century pine pews panelled with roll tops. Two 19th-century hatchments are displayed, and there is a free-standing carved oak lectern.

The church originally had a single bell of 1791, which was replaced by three bells in 1895.

Stained Glass

The east window contains 19th-century glass depicting the Stable, Crucifixion and Resurrection in an architectural setting, a memorial to Parry Jones of Madryn, died 1853, with the family arms. The chancel south window shows a Good Shepherd, a memorial to Sarah Caldecot of Holton Hall, died 1825, mother of Dame Elizabeth Jones Parry. The north chancel window depicts Noah and the Shoal of Fishes, a memorial to Commander Charles Caldecot RN, died 1864.

In the nave, the 3-light south window features St George, Crown of Righteousness and St David, a memorial to David Manley who died at Tel Khuweilfeh in 1917. Also in the nave is St Pedrog, created by Andy Seddon and Richard Kay in 1997. The north-side east window is a 1914-18 War Memorial depicting Christ and Archangel over the battlefields, with the names of the dead inscribed on a marble tablet on the window sill. The west gallery window contains late medieval yellow-stain glass of around 1500, fragmented but including a trumping angel, tonsured head and book, reset around 1850.

Monuments

The chancel east wall bears two monuments: a Carrara tablet with painted alabaster arms above and a putto below on a corbel, to Anne Parry of Wernfa and Rachel, wife of Love Parry, died 1730; and a verde antico sarcophagus-shaped panel enriched with anthemion and wreath, to Margaret Jones Parry. The north wall displays a gothic limestone aedicule supported on winged angels, to Henry Powell Slingsby, son of Love Parry of Madryn, died 1849. The south chancel wall bears a large tablet of white marble against black slate, by M W Johnson of London, with side pilasters featuring acanthus and anthemion terminals and a draped urn on the cornice, to Martha Alder, died 1839, with an adulatory inscription.

In the nave north wall is a large alabaster rope wreath and dentilled trefoil around a trefoil brass plate to Robert Lloyd Jones Parry of Aberdunant, barrister of Lincoln's Inn, JP and High Sheriff in 1862 and 1863, who died 1870. This monument features a black marble circular back plate with lobes and half spheres of alabaster, all by Chapman of Frome.

A poor box inscribed on the lid ARIIAN GOCHION 1774 S stands within the church.