Parish Church of St Cynbryd

Parish Church of St Cynbryd

This is a double-naved church with the north aisle longer than the south. Built of rubble construction, it is faced with finely-dressed, random polygonal masonry with sandstone dressings, set on a chamfered plinth that is double-chamfered to the north aisle. The roofs are steeply pitched slate with tiled ridges and kneelered gable parapets featuring overlapping copings. Eaves are oversailing with expressed rafter-ends, and stone gable crosses surmount the porch and north aisle. Continuous sill and label mouldings run around the building, with those on the south aisle returned onto the porch.

The porch is gabled and single-storey with a pointed-arched, moulded entrance containing deeply-recessed boarded modern doors. To the left is a single ogee-headed lancet; to the right a similar 2-light window, beyond which are two large Geometric tracery windows with quatrefoil occuli divided by a stepped buttress. The south aisle features a high trefoil tracery window to the east and a plate tracery triple-lancet window to the west end with cusped ogee heads and a pointed outer arch.

At the north-west corner of the south aisle, rising in the angle between it and the advanced north aisle, stands a tall octagonal bell turret. This has pointed-arched bell-openings to its sandstone upper stage, cusped and moulded with crenellated brattishing and ball flower ornament. A stone spire with lead ball finial and surmounting decorative weathervane crowns the turret.

The north aisle west gable has a stepped buttress at its centre, flanked by elegant 2-light windows with ogee tracery. In the gable apex is an oculus of three conjoined trefoils. Five ogee-headed lancets run along the north wall with a continuous sill course that steps down at the easternmost point. Beyond this are further buttressing flanked by a 2-light window to the east and a 3-light tracery window to the west. A large Geometric tracery window lights the east end, with further 2-light windows to the north and south sides of the chancel.

A rectangular vestry adjoins the north aisle towards the east end, attached via a mono-pitched link block. It is gabled and entered from the south side by stepped-up entrance with moulded, ogee-headed arch and moulded label continued as a sill moulding around the west gable. The door is boarded with decorative ironwork. 2-light tracery windows with uncarved square label stops light the east and west gables, with two small trefoil lights to the north side. Steps descend to a boiler room in the link block basement.

Interior

The double-naved interior reflects a regional type. The south aisle roof consists of six bays of steep arched-braced collar truss with ogee trusses decorated with quatrefoils and two tiers of windbraces. The north aisle roof comprises five similar bays. The walls are ashlar, and floors are quarry-tiled in red, black and yellow.

A four-bay arcade of moulded, pointed arches with conjoined labels runs between the aisles, ending at east and west in ball flower stops. The arcade supports cylindrical columns with moulded abaci on staged octagonal bases. Original pitch-pine pews remain in situ.

The font is a striking white marble work of a life-sized kneeling angel, created by Cecil Thomas in 1928 and set upon a chamfered stone plinth. Behind it stands the rough stone font of the medieval predecessor church. A further octagonal Gothic stone font in Decorated style features blind tracery and rich naturalistic foliage.

An ogee-headed, chamfered entrance to the bell tower is fitted with a boarded door of plain, original ironwork.

A low stone tracery screen with moulded purple-pink marble capping steps up to the chancel in the north aisle. Fine original wrought iron tracery doors with pierced trefoil finials retain original gilding and polychromy. A large pointed chancel arch with moulded jambs opens into the chancel, which is roofed with a cluster-truss.

The chancel contains oak choir stalls in simple Gothic style with trefoil bench-ends and blind trefoil and rosette decoration. The stepped-up sanctuary is paved with polychromed tiles, probably by William Godwin. A twin-arched arcade connects the chancel to the organ space in the south aisle, with continuous mouldings and infilled by a blind tracery screen in the style of circa 1330, featuring cusped ogee tracery and crenellated brattishing. A narrow hollow-chamfered arched vestry entrance with boarded door and original ironwork opens to the north.

Two-seat sedilia with cusped ogee heads and an adjoining piscina occupy the south side. The chancel is dominated by a fine tripartite carved stone reredos in Decorated Court Style, probably carved by William Earp. The central section displays naturalistic foliate carving, crenellated brattishing and ball flower decoration. Nodding-ogee canopied niches flank a central crucifixion group with saints, with further saint figures in the niches, all executed in reconstituted stone. Fine blind tracery panels flank the reredos, featuring ogees, depressed quatrefoils and naturalistic foliate spandrels.

Two-light Decorated tracery windows light the chancel, with figurative glass contemporary to the chancel construction; the north wall windows are likewise contemporary or near-contemporary. The windows have wide inner splays.

A contemporary or near-contemporary organ by Hill and Son of London occupies the south aisle. It features a panelled oak case and polychromed pipes with scrolled ironwork.

A moulded pointed-arched inner entrance to the porch has a moulded label with ball-flower stops and is floored in polychromed tiles.

Gothic brass candle brackets are mounted throughout.