Church of Saint Maelog

Church of Saint Maelog

This is a 19th-century church built of grey stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. It comprises a plain rubble stone west tower with pyramid slate roof, a nave, a chancel, a south porch, and a northeast vestry with organ chamber.

The west tower is plain rubble stone with a pyramid slate roof. It has small rectangular louvred bell-openings on each side under the eaves, with chamfered red sandstone jambs. There are two vent loops on the south and one on the west, the latter above a flush ashlar pointed 2-light window from 1857 with cusped lights and a quatrefoil in the head, finished with stone voussoirs. A blocked pointed arched door is on the tower's south side, right of centre, also with stone voussoirs.

The nave is built of 19th-century squared stone and has 2-light windows similar to those in the tower, dating from 1857 with stone voussoirs. It sits on a raised plinth. The south side has a porch and two windows; the north side has two windows. At the west end, tooled stone buttresses rise to the eaves on each side, with a plinth and shallow offset. At the east end, shorter buttresses with three chamfered offsets stand on each side, with ashlar quoins above. The gabled porch dates from 1894-5 and features bargeboards, a red sandstone roundel with a cross in the gable, and a chamfered pointed door with hoodmould and carved stops. The porch side walls have single red sandstone lancets.

The 19th-century chancel is lower than the nave and built of squared stone with a plinth, coped east gable, and cross finial. It has two ashlar south small cusped lancets and diagonal east corner buttresses with plinth, gable on the upper face, and chamfered ashlar top. A large ashlar pointed 3-light east window with hoodmould and three stepped lancets, finished with stone voussoirs, dominates the east end.

The north side contains a large gabled organ chamber and vestry of rock-faced stone with ashlar chamfered plinth, quoins, deep-eaved roof, and moulded sill course. The sill course runs under paired east lancets, steps up before the northeast corner, and at a higher level runs under a north long lancet. It is carried around the west side as a hoodmould over a pointed ashlar door on the left, and under a single lancet on the right.

The interior has plastered walls with ashlar pointed reveals to openings. The nave features a broad scissor-rafter roof and an ashlar west tower arch of double-chamfered pointed form dying into the jambs. The tower has a high ceiling with walls stepped in at about 3 metres height. A late 19th-century band of mosaic runs along each side of the nave above the pews, depicting a vine trail.

The chancel has an ashlar arch of two orders, with the inner one carried on corbelled wall shafts. It contains exceptional late 19th-century detail, including a low red marble wall, a chancel step with a very ornate wrought-iron and brass screen by Skidmore of Coventry. The chancel roof is boarded and panelled with moulded ribs and bosses in a 7-sided form, with a moulded brattished wallplate. A pointed arch to the north organ chamber dies into its jambs. A fine mosaic chancel floor in blue, red, white, and yellow features an IHS motif in the centre, with a marble step to the sanctuary. An exceptional alabaster reredos dominates the east end wall, flanked by wall-cladding. The reredos has two-bay sides with pointed arches featuring marble shafts and a brattished cornice. A triple-gabled structure sits above, with gables on short columns over cusped pointed sculpture niches. The centre gable has crockets and a finial. Three carved alabaster scenes fill the niches: the Entombment, Deposition, and Resurrection. The east window of ashlar triple lancets sits in a splayed pointed reveal with a moulded arch dying into the jambs. An alabaster cusped pointed recess on the north wall has a hoodmould and red marble shelves. The organ chamber is lined in red brick banded in black, with a scissor-rafter roof.

Fittings include a medieval round stone font tapered below to a round shaft and a medieval stoup in the porch with incised bands. Oak nave pews from the late 19th century have shaped bench ends and fielded-panelled backs. Two earlier 19th-century painted boards display the Ten Commandments.

Late 19th-century fittings are exceptional. A fine brass pelican lectern stands on a twisted stem with polished semiprecious stones. An alabaster pulpit features three red marble steps, a curved base, and a curved front with leaf bosses in the upper and lower cornices, and a niche containing a carved Good Shepherd. The remarkable wrought-iron and brass chancel screen by Skidmore of Coventry comprises three bays on each side of the centre. The centre bay is gabled with scrollwork and scrolled crockets, supporting a large ornate brass cross inset with large semiprecious stones. Scrolled double gates and lower panels decorate the side bays, which have thin shafts and scrolled pointed heads, with a scrolled top rail featuring cresting and finials. Oak chancel stalls have pierced Gothic arcaded fronts inscribed 'And our mouths shall show forth thy praise', scrolled tops to bench ends, carvings of musical instruments, and a band of foiled circles. The north stalls have a wrought-iron screen by Skidmore behind them. Two hanging chancel lamps and two wall lamps light the space. Altar rails feature twisted standards and scrolls.

Important inscribed stones survive. On the tower's east wall is an exceptionally significant incised stone, possibly a cross shaft dating from the 10th to 11th century, measuring some 7 to 8 feet (2 to 2.5 metres). It bears a Latin cross with knotted ends and plaitwork in each corner, above a crude relief figure holding what appears to be a club and dagger, surrounded by knotwork. A rope-mould panel below contains an inscription reading '+ BRIAMAIL FLOU' with a panel of plaitwork beneath. (Another stone inscribed Catuc was found built face-inwards to the tower arch but was lost by the 1870s.)

Eleven incised floor slabs from the 17th and 18th centuries are reset against the tower walls. These include a slab from 1601, one to Abigail Davies who died in 1769 by Games, and one to William Prytherch who died in 1776. A slab on the south commemorates Margaret Jones of Loeger, died 1795, with painted classical low relief decoration by Samuel Williams of Builth. A nave north memorial from 1793 to William Prytherch of Llandefaelog House, died 1776, features Adam-style urns in grey and white marble. A marble plaque commemorates Penoyre Watkins (1721-92) and was erected in 1819 by his son, the Reverend Thomas Watkins of Penoyre. It also commemorates his two children, Pen'aur and Julia, who died young in 1812 and 1818.

The east 3-light window dates from 1857 and was made by Thomas Ward, featuring seven scenes from the life of Christ on blue grounds. The nave has four 2-light windows with patterned quarries from around 1857. The tower's west window is a 2-light with angels in the style of Kempe (died 1902). Late 19th-century patterned glass appears in the porch.

The organ was removed from St Mary's Brecon around 1890. The bells comprise two from the 15th century from Gloucester, two from 1715 from Brecon (one recast in 1981), and two from 1889.