Church of St Cewydd

Church of St Cewydd

A Tudor-Gothic style church comprising a nave with lower chancel, north porch and west tower. The walls are rubble stone, whitened to the nave and chancel, with a stone-tile roof.

The lower north porch is open-fronted with a timber-framed gable enriched with bold quatrefoil and trefoil decoration. The roof has cusped barge boards. East of the porch is a 2-light nave window with trefoil-headed lights. The chancel has a 3-light square-headed north window with pointed lights and sunk spandrels. To the right of the window are three memorial tablets, two with moulded surrounds, commemorating Jeremiah Powell (died 1715), Charles Watkins (died 1707) and John Watkins (died 1712). Another tablet below the window sill is badly weathered. There is no east window. On the south side of the chancel is a blocked 4-centred doorway. It has a 2-light window to the left and a 4-light window to the right, both with similar detail to the north window. To the upper right of the doorway is a memorial tablet to Catherine Davies (died 1709) with well-cut letters. Upper left of the left-hand window is a tablet to Daniel James (died 1786) by Games of Talgarth. The nave has three 2-light square-headed windows with cusped lights and sunk central spandrel.

The unbuttressed 2-stage west tower has red-sandstone dressings to openings inserted in 1888 and raised bands between stages. A pointed south doorway has two orders of continuous chamfer and hood mould with a small window above it. Small original windows are in the west and north faces. The 2-light belfry windows have cusped lights, hood moulds and louvres. The pyramidal slate roof has an apex weathervane.

The porch has a central arched-brace truss. East and west walls have low wooden benches with higher stone benches behind. Attached to the east wall is a grave slab with 'IH 1604' in low relief. Attached to the west wall is a grave slab to Jeremiah Cartwright (died 1722). The nave has a pointed north doorway with two orders of ovolo moulding and a replacement door with vertical ribs.

The nave has an 8-bay arched-brace roof on moulded brackets, probably 17th century. The chancel has a medieval wagon roof on a plain cornice with moulded ribs and plain bosses. The late-medieval rood screen has a wide central doorway flanked by seven narrow bays on each side, which have a panelled dado and delicate tracery heads. Above are two tiers of post-medieval corkscrew balusters and a moulded cornice, probably the original rood beam. The nave has panelled wainscot comprised of old box pews. The chancel has sanctuary tiles of 1888. Gothic cast-iron communion rails are by Hodges & Wright. The wooden reredos has a wide cusped panel with IHS monogram, pinnacles and castellated cornice. Above are a pair of pointed, painted panels with the Decalogue, flanked by similar panels with the Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed. At the west end of the nave is a boarded screen enclosing a vestry.

The octagonal font was made in 1854, the original font having been taken to Alltmawr, Brecknockshire. It has cusped panels with Passion symbols and an ornate stem with alternate foliage and vertical panel designs. Pews of 1914 have shaped ends, and choir stalls have boarded fronts and ends with stepped buttresses. The open polygonal pulpit has Gothic tracery. In the chancel north wall is a wall tablet to James Baskerville (died 1792) by S. Thomas of Brecon, comprising a freestone panel surmounted by a coat of arms and urn. To its left is a marble panel to Joan Jones (died 1793) by R. Millward of Hay, comprising an inscription panel in an architrave with an apron decorated with a dove in low relief and a pediment with garland and blank oval panel. Next to it is a brass inscription panel to George Greenwood (died 1867). In the embrasure of the west window in the chancel south wall is a slate tablet with oval inscription panel to James James (died 1783) by T. Games of Talgarth.

Two windows contain stained glass. In the nave south wall are Saints Cewydd and Teilo, by William Glasby and dated 1923. In the chancel south wall is Simon with Jesus, by A.J. Dix, dated 1904.