Llanrhychwyn Church

Llanrhychwyn Church

This is a twin-aisled rectangular church of considerable historical importance. The southern aisle is the earlier structure, built of flush-rendered rubble, while the northern aisle was added later in roughly-dressed slatestone blocks. Both are roofed in slate, with the outer pitches carrying old heavy slates and the inner pitches modern slates. The gable parapets are coped and kneelered, with exposed rafter ends to the eaves.

A rubble gabled bellcote sits at the west gable of the northern aisle, featuring a Tudor-arched bell opening and plain bands at cill and lintel levels.

The southern aisle entrance is deeply recessed with a round arch. The door itself dates to the 17th century and is of post-and-panel type with a pegged, arched frame and original pivot hinge arrangement. To the right of the door is a plain square leaded window with an internal wrought iron grille and a slate lintel carved with the date 1737. Another similar undated window stands further to the right. The east window is a 15th-century 2-light opening with cusped sandstone tracery heads and chamfered reveals.

The northern aisle contains an original square 2-light window to the left, with a chamfered slatestone surround and contemporary wrought-iron grille (though the mullion is a 19th-century replacement). To the right and near the centre is an original square-headed, chamfered doorway that was converted to a window in the mid-19th century and partly blocked at that time; it now has a rendered oak window frame with a trefoil head. The northwest corner features exceptionally long quoins. The east window is similarly original, a large square Tudor-arched opening with a chamfered slatestone arch and reveals, with contemporary iron grille matching those elsewhere.

The interior has slate flagged floors which in places incorporate 18th and early 19th-century gravestones. The floor steps down centrally in each aisle to a lower level towards the east. The southern aisle contains 10 clustered roof trusses of braced collar type, and the south wall is raised approximately 80 centimetres above the floor with contemporary timber stud framing. A boarded barrel vault covers the eastern chancel section.

The two aisles are separated by a 4-bay arcade with large square piers having chamfered bases and abaci, with a timber wall plate.

The southern aisle houses oak altar rails with turned balusters, inscribed with the date 1636 and initials W.O., though these are not in their original position. An early 17th-century oak altar table stands with scrolled brackets to a plain frieze and plain stretchers supporting octagonal-sectioned legs. Fragments of mid to late 15th-century stained glass survive in the upper half of the east window, executed in grisaille with yellow stain and depicting a fragmentary Trinity on the left and a Madonna and Child on the right.

The northern aisle has a 5-bay arch-braced collar truss roof with chamfered trusses and two tiers of cusped windbraces; plain rafters and purlins support the structure. Fixed 19th-century pews occupy the lower half of the aisle towards the east. An octagonal oak pulpit with panelled faces stands here, carved with a shield inscribed "TW EE 1691 Anno ED" (for churchwardens). An associated reading desk to the right and an early 17th-century coffer below it (inscribed when later adapted "PW OP 1720") accompany the pulpit; all three pieces have 18th-century graining. Fragments of 16th to 19th-century stained glass appear in the northern windows. The east window retains much of its original early 16th-century stained glass, depicting a crucifixion group at the centre with Saint David and a further bishop-saint below, with fragmentary inscriptions surviving.

A plain early Medieval font with chamfered sides and no base stands in the church. Simple arched slate tablets on the south wall commemorate John Thomas and John Davis, wardens, 1762, and on the west face of the east arcade pier is a tablet to Richard Robert Thomas, 1785.