Church of St Melyd

Church of St Melyd

A small church of Grade II* importance with no exterior distinction between nave and chancel, built in uncoarsed axe-dressed masonry with a slate roof in regular courses and a tile ridge.

The church is constructed mainly from local limestone, though the porch frontage and the rebuilt west wall are faced in sandstone. Freestone dressings frame the door and window openings, both original and those added during restoration. The east gable is coped with a finial cross at its apex; the west gable is similarly coped but carries a double bellcote, although only one bell survives, dated 1700. The side walls include a porch to the south in matching masonry and a 19th-century vestry to the north in similar stone facing.

The porch and vestry gables display exposed tie beams with timber framing above and prominent bargeboards. The east window retains its original jambs and arch with a label mould featuring face finials, though the tracery has been entirely restored; it contains five lights. To the south of the chancel stands a two-light window with a flat head and no label mould, adjacent to which is a three-light window with a four-centred arch and a slightly everted label mould at its foot. A two-light 19th-century window sits west of the porch without a label mould. The east wall contains two small lancets with a small hexafoil rose above them, restored but believed to incorporate surviving 13th-century fabric. The north wall features a two-light 19th-century window close to the vestry, a three-light high-level window beneath a flat head at the former pulpit position, and a walled-up north door beneath a simple chamfered pointed arch with a small 19th-century single-light window above it. The vestry's north face contains two timber windows; its west face holds a Tudor door with one timber window beside it, and another small timber window occupies the angle between the vestry and chancel. The porch sides have long timber windows inserted, with prominent timber jambs flanking the outer porch doors.

The porch's inner door is a fine medieval survival, retaining its ledges, frame, cross bracing and restored battens with external studding.

The church is entered from the south. The interior has been restored with high-quality joinery designed to create warm contrast against the bare stonework of the ancient walls. The chancel is distinguished by a ribbed barrel ceiling beginning at a 19th-century hammer-beam truss incorporating Perpendicular tracery, positioned above the chancel step. The nave roof comprises trussed rafters, partly restored and not divided into bays, with collars and arch braces.

The nave contains plain open pitch-pine pews with brass umbrella holders. A carved oak Gothic pulpit in the right wall sits upon a stone base with four steps; its upper panels feature small turned balusters. Material from the former pulpit is said to be incorporated into its construction. At the north side of the nave stands the walled-up recess of the former north doorway with its four-centred arch and an irregular sill marking where the pulpit once stood. A single step leads into the chancel.

The chancel contains carved oak choirstalls and communion rails without a gate. A carved oak reredos behind the altar, donated in 1950, forms the focal point. To the left, the organ and the vestry door are set together within a screen positioned slightly off-centre beneath a heavily moulded Tudor arch. The chancel floor is paved with encaustic and coloured decorative tiles laid in patterns. A fragment of a misericord survives near the pulpit.

The font is 12th-century and octagonal, decorated with panels in low relief incorporating pointed arches; it has a restored base.

Commemorative boards on the south wall record those who served in the Great War, whilst another west of the door commemorates the fallen. A further tablet on the north wall records those who fell in both World Wars.