Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a largely 17th-century building with 19th-century additions and alterations, situated within a churchyard containing numerous slate headstones by T.R. Jones of Llanbrynmair and others, as well as five yew trees. The church is built of local rubble stone with a slate roof. It consists of a single-celled nave and chancel, a vestry and storeroom at the west end, a south porch, and a large chapel or transept, known as the 'cross church' in 1730 and now used as a schoolroom, on the north side. A timber-framed tower with a pyramidal roof rises through the roof above the storeroom and lobby at the west end.

The south porch has an open outer arch leading to a 19th-century inner door framed by limestone quoins. There are two-light trefoil-headed windows, largely of the 19th century, and a three-light window at the east end. The transept features a re-set three-light window from the 15th century on its north side, and a door on the east side. The storeroom has external double doors to the north.

The church has a 19th-century tie beam roof for four bays at the east end, and likely 15th-century trussed rafters further west. The walls are plastered. A timber arcade with 35cm square posts and angle braces to the wall plate, inscribed ‘RI WB 1685’ on its soffit, is located on the north side, likely added when the transept was built. The east wall is thickened on either side of the window, one side arched. A rough aumbrey is set in the north wall, and a piscina with drain is in the south wall. A timber partition with moulded posts, probably from the 17th century, now separates the body of the church from the vestry at the base of the tower and storeroom. The church contains a 15th-century yellow stain glass quarry in the north transept window, and a geometric window by D.Evans from 1860, also on the north side. The pulpit is a 19th-century construction incorporating 17th-century carved panelling, and fragments of the former medieval rood screen, with other parts said to be at the National Folk Museum at St Fagans. The font, a circular bowl with a roll rim, is believed to be of the 13th century (according to Haslam), though it has been reworked and is said to have come from an earlier church at Dolgadfan. There are three bells, including one dated 1665, and a bell by A.Rudhall inscribed ‘Prosperity to this Parish AR 1759’, housed in a braced frame likely dating to the 17th-18th centuries. The vestry contains 18th-century dado panelling.

Furnishings include a 17th-century altar table with stretchers close to the floor, and three early rough pews, three more in the transept, and one in the vestry. There are also two 19th-century arch-headed text boards quoting Exodus in Welsh.

Numerous monuments are present, including a marble tablet to Capt. Loscombe Law Stable (d.1914), Daniel Winteringham Stable (d.1929), a slate tablet to the Rt Hon. Sir Winteringham Norton Stable (d.1976), and a Carrara marble monument on a painted board to Pte William Tudor (d.1917) and Albert Roberts (d.1918). Also present is a gabled tablet to the Griffith family and a heavily carved Gothic limestone ogee canopied exedra to Anne Browne Russell of Gellendowyl (d.1831), by R.Browne of Russell Street, along with a 1915 war memorial with sculptured bronze inserts in veined marble.