Parish Church of St Sadwrn including adjacent Cross Shaft

Parish Church of St Sadwrn including adjacent Cross Shaft

A medium-sized, single-cell parish church of rectangular plan, constructed of limestone rubble with yellow sandstone dressings added in 1807 and limestone dressings in 1878. The primary quoins at the corners are of red and brown sandstone, with limestone replacing them in the upper sections where the church was heightened. The roof is slated, with 19th-century coped gable parapets featuring moulded kneelers and an eaves course; stone gable crosses top each gable.

The church has five bays on each side. A south porch with a gable projects from the second bay from the west, approached by four stone steps with a rubble parapet to the left, topped with early chamfered sandstone copings. The porch entrance has a double pointed arch with broach stops and chamfers, with a moulded label bearing carved, returned head stops and a modern iron grille. Inside the porch, a chamfered inner entrance arch frames a contemporary boarded door with simple decorative ironwork and a decorative tiled pavement.

To the left of the porch is a two-light pointed-arched window with Geometric tracery, dating to 1878, featuring hollow chamfered jambs, a moulded label, and carved head stops. To the right of the porch are three two-light windows with Y tracery and later cusping, their voussoirs rough-dressed. Diagonally above the first of these windows is a squat Victorian lateral chimney. The north side displays similar windows, with an additional rectangular Victorian commemorative window inserted at the far right. A north vestry projection, located at the second bay from the west, has a simple end chimney and gable; on its west side is a reset 14th-century two-light Gothic window with cusping and a quatrefoil ocular head.

The east end is dominated by a large five-light Perpendicular window, heavily renewed in the 19th century, with a pointed arch, cusping, hollow-chamfered jambs, and complex tracery heads with a label. The west end has a stepped central buttress with flanking two-light Victorian windows featuring tracery heads and returned labels.

Abutting the porch steps to the right is a medieval sandstone cross shaft, octagonal and chamfered onto a square base, tapering towards a flat top and reaching approximately 2.3 metres in height.

Interior

The interior is a single chamber with continuous nave and chancel. A Victorian pine barrel-vaulted ceiling is compartmented into eight bays with simple moulded ribbing; the two eastern bays above the chancel have marginal and central bands enriched with blind quatrefoils. The walls are of stripped limestone rubble, with simple fixed pine pews flanking a central pavement of red, black, and yellow tiles.

The primary north doorway, now within the 19th-century vestry, consists of a pointed-arched entrance with sandstone jambs bearing half-round moulding, a shouldered inner arch, and a 19th-century boarded door. The west end features small-field dado panelling of oak, returned onto the south and north walls, which was brought from Waterhouse's Eaton Hall in Cheshire and installed in 1965; this panelling has crenellated brattishing.

A simple octagonal limestone font stands on a wide octagonal plinth, crowned with an oak font cover carved with an angel figure and a dedication inscription in memory of Anne Elizabeth Walpole, who died in 1854. This replaced the medieval font, which was found in recent years at Llys Meirchion and has now been re-sited near the porch.

The chancel is stepped up and separated from the nave by a low parapet of Stanton stone approximately one metre high, with a moulded top rail and a series of blind quatrefoil oculi to the front—five to the left and eight to the right of a plain central opening. On the left side is a contemporary square stone pulpit emerging from the parapet and projecting slightly in front of it. The pulpit has a moulded top and dentilated base with half-round stopped-mouldings to the corners; its front features a square recess with dentilated top and a blind quatrefoil oculus bearing the raised IHS monogram flanked by four spheres. Plain pine choirstalls and a modern organ are positioned to the south.

The sanctuary is stepped up further; both the chancel and sanctuary have polychromed tiled pavements. An oak altar rail with six polychromed iron Gothic supports, featuring scrolled spandrels with applied star motifs, spans the width. Fielded oak half-panelling lines the sanctuary, stepped up above the altar and returned along the north and south sides, with crenellated brattishing and, above the altar, a biblical text frieze in raised, gilded lettering. The south wall retains a small medieval piscina with an ogee head.

Monuments

The chancel north wall bears a simple classical memorial tablet in white marble on black marble to Heaton Lloyd Williams and his wife, who died in 1862. To the west is a notable classical memorial to Richard Augustus Griffith Esquire, of Garn, who died in 1831, by W. Spence of Liverpool; it comprises a white marble tablet with a draped urn and clasped hands carved in relief.

On the nave north wall at the west end is a classical tablet in white marble on a brown figured marble background to Thomas and Martha Peake, who died in 1811 and 1813 respectively. The nave south wall features a classical tablet to Catherine Greatorix of Dolben, who died in 1837, in white and black marble.

The west wall displays a fine late baroque mural monument to the Jones family of Galltfaenan Hall, erected in 1780. It consists of an off-white marble architectural frame with some coloured marble inlay; voluted sides flank a central tablet with an egg-and-dart cornice raised to the centre, and paired winged cherubs occupy the apron. A brown figured marble obelisk surmounts the monument, bearing a good heraldic cartouche and flanking urn finials, with a figurative relief above the obelisk. To the left of this is a brass to Elizabeth Jones, who died in 1738, with shaped top and heraldry. To the right of the Jones monument are two further Peake family memorials (formerly of Perthewig): a white and grey marble tablet to Hugh Peake and his heirs, erected in 1796 with a surmounting wreath, and a recessed sandstone tablet in an ovolo-moulded frame to Hugh Peake, who died in 1697, bearing relief-carved arms.

In the sanctuary stands a fine early 17th-century altar table of carved oak, originally larger but now reduced in size. It features bulbous Jacobean turned and gadrooned legs, acanthus decoration, strapwork-carved stretchers, and a foliated frieze. The front has a double-arched form with applied angel busts in the spandrels and the date '16' in raised letters. At the east end of the nave hangs a pair of nine-branch brass chandeliers, inscribed as having been presented in 1788 by John Vaughan of Groes; they feature gadrooned bowls with surmounting bird figures and scrolled branches. The vestry contains two 18th-century stone Benefactors' Boards with painted inscriptions.

Stained and Painted Glass

The south wall displays two figurative windows by Miller on the eastern side: the first commemorates Dorothy Roberts of Plas-yn-Green, who died in 1863; the second honours John Heaton of Plas Heaton, who died in 1855. To the west is a window of good quality glass commemorating John Jocelyn Ffoulkes, who died in 1898. To the right of the south entrance is a window of 1878, also to the Ffoulkes family of Eriviatt Hall.

The north wall features a window, second from the east, dating to 1935 and commissioned by Sir Earnest Tate of Galltfaenan Hall, Baronet, to commemorate King George V's jubilee; it was made by Whitefriars. To the west of this is an Arts and Crafts window to Alice, widow of Oliver Burton of Gwaenanog. At the west end is a small rectangular window with exceptionally fine heraldic glass commemorating Thomas Peake, who died in 1837. Designed by Charles Winston and made by Ward and Nixon, it consists of a main central shield flanked by eight shields.

The east and west windows date to 1878 and feature simple coloured marginal glazing with biblical text and small, delicate grisaille panels to the former.