Church of St Beuno

The Church of St Beuno is a Perpendicular style church with a west tower, dating from the 16th century. It is constructed of random rubble with slate roofs. The main body of the church has stepped buttresses, which are diagonal at the east end. The south side features two sets of three-light windows in the nave and paired two-light windows in the chancel, all with hood moulds that have circular stops. A five-light window is located at the east end, beneath a coped gable with a cross on the ridge. The north side is similar to the south but plainer, and includes a north vestry with a prominent stone chimney. The three-stage west tower has angle buttresses and a three-light window from the 16th century above a contemporary doorway. The belfry is a two-story timber-framed structure with a continuous louvred sound opening, a pyramidal slate roof, and a weathervane.

A brass plaque in the west wall of the nave, dated 1531, is dedicated to John ap Meredyth, a vicar of Bettws. As the only surviving Pre-Reformation brass in Montgomeryshire, it commemorates the construction of the tower. Fragments of 17th-century wood panelling are found beneath the tower. Two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments flank the east window, possibly dating from the 1811 restoration. The interior largely reflects Nesfield’s restoration. The roof, built in the local medieval style, has no division between nave and chancel. It features arch-braces on square corbels, prominent timber pegs, cusped windbraces with boarded panels behind. The chancel is raised by the insertion of steps with engraved texts from the Gospels and St Paul’s Epistles on their risers and communion step. A restrained, simply-panelled pulpit and reading desk are located to the left and right of the chancel. A reredos, added in 1871, is constructed of Caen Stone and depicts the crucifixion and the Evangelists. Flanking the reredos is patterned stencil work of foliage and lettering in an Arts and Crafts style. The east window, designed by William Wailes in 1868, depicts the Ascension and other New Testament scenes. Fragments of Continental glass, largely from the 15th and 16th centuries, are assembled into collages within the south nave windows. The heptagonal font, dating from 1868, is in a local Perpendicular style. An unfinished screen at the west end incorporates painted tin panels that document the rebuilding of the church in 1868. Three simple 19th-century memorial tablets are affixed to the nave walls. A second pulpit, brought from Hawarden church, was installed in 1952.

The belfry is said to carry a substantial four-panelled pit bell frame, originally of short-headed form. Its construction is believed to predate the tower, circa 1400. The frame was converted to a long-headed form in the first half of the 17th century and is said to contain 17th-century graffiti.