Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the Powys local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 17 January 1963. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
stark-obsidian-stoat
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Powys
Constituency
Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe MP: David Chadwick (LD)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
17 January 1963
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Mary, Llan-Y-Wern, Llangors
OS grid reference
SO 101 286
Coordinates
51.94919, -3.30818
Source
Cadw listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary is a simple, low rectangular building dating from the 18th century. It features a large west porch, a small west bellcote, and continuous chancel and nave walls, although the roof of the chancel is lower. The structure is built of stone rubble with some dressed stone dressings and remnants of lime render, topped with a banded Welsh slate roof. The west porch has a round arched doorway with narrow voussoirs, where the right jamb consists of a large single stone. There is a similar west doorway leading to the nave, which has very decorative scroll hinges on the boarded door and a timber lintel at the rear. Inside the two-bay porch, the walls are limewashed, with side benches and a flagged floor. Small side lights illuminate the space, and the wall to the left is very thick while the right has a deep splay. The truss features a collar and tie beam with two rows of trenched purlins, which were formerly limewashed.

The nave has square-headed lights with chamfered surrounds, including one single and one double window, which have been renewed, with a wall monument from 1728 located above. There is a blocked priest's door with a stone lintel at the east end of the nave. The chancel's south window is a single trefoil-headed light, while the east window is a 19th-century window with two lights, and the north window has been renewed to feature two square-headed lights. The north nave has two deep full-height buttresses. The bellcote is clad in slate and has a pyramidal roof. The churchyard is roughly circular and includes a lychgate with a stone-tiled roof.

The interior remains largely unrestored from the 19th century. It features scissor-braced trusses with a five-sided wagon roof in the nave, with posts on the wallplate supporting the angled ribs. The windows have deep splays, and there is a blocked opening above the west door. The pews are panelled with billet mouldings, and the dados are planked, with a flagged floor throughout. The font is a plain bowl on a short stem, accompanied by an old wooden cover with a circular motif. A holy water stoup is located to the south of the west door. The church contains 18th-century wall monuments, some signed by Powell of Talgarth and Hughes. There are also sympathetic light oak pulpit, lectern, and altar from the 20th century. The chancel features a late medieval lower boarded panelled ceiling with reeded ribs, and the beams over the site of the rood retain traces of red paint. Wainscot panelling behind the altar is dated 1657 and features a floral motif on the rail and panels below. The church is lit with oil lamps.

Local climate

Church of St Mary sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,180 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 78% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 57 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 96% of listed buildings. Of these, 32 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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