Church of St Melangell

Church of St Melangell

A small church of many periods, built in quasi-coursed local slate masonry with a slate roof and tile ridges. The building consists of a nave and chancel (hardly differentiated externally), a west tower, a south porch, and a recently reconstructed eastern apse. Original Norman masonry survives around the south door and in the west part of the north wall of the nave.

The chancel roof features a small stone cross of Celtic form at its eastern end. Both the chancel and porch roofs have plain verges. The tower is distinctive, with a truncated pyramid roof topped by metal hips and a timber belfry opening, above which sits a second pyramid roof crowned with an iron weathervane. The apse is covered by a half-conical roof.

The south side of the church contains one reset 15th-century three-light window and three 19th-century two-light windows, all with trefoil heads. The north side has a similar 19th-century two-light window and a small Norman light. Two small lights illuminate the tower, and three small round-headed lights light the apse. The porch features a semicircular outer arch with a slight label course above the doorway. A stone above the porch doorway is inscribed with the date 1737, and the date 1763 appears on the gates. The inner Norman doorway is tall and narrow, with oak doors dated 1737 on the lock.

The interior is entered through the south porch and is long and narrow, conspicuously divided by a restored rood screen with dominant solid boarding above. The nave comprises four bays of roofing with arch-braced collar beam trusses and V struts; the panels above the collar beams are cusped. The floor is laid in red and black quarry tiles, with two banks of plain pews occupying the nave. A panelled pulpit stands at the left on a restored base.

The rood screen is fine work, featuring a wide centre panel and four panels on each side, with filigree carving in the panel heads. The rood loft has a carved beam and cornice, with its front divided into eleven panels also decorated with filigree carved heads. A benefaction board is displayed beside the south door, and the Royal Arms hang on the west wall. A wooden candelabrum dated 1733 is also present.

A small step rises to the chancel, which has a flagged floor and a three-bay barrel ceiling. Simple altar rails, which have been relocated and altered, stand before the altar. Two 14th-century effigies are positioned left and right of the chancel. A memorial at the left commemorates John Thomas (died 1729) and others of Llechwedd-y-garth, executed in figured marble with a broken pediment.

On the east side of the rood screen partition is displayed a plaster painting dated 1791 by vestry minutes, showing the Creed, Ten Commandments, and Lord's Prayer in Welsh within a nowy-headed panel. The painting includes two cherubs: one winged and carrying a cloth inscribed "ofnwch Dduw" (fear God), the other bearing a large round shield inscribed "a chedwch ei orchymynni" (and keep his commandments). The painting at the head of the panel has deteriorated but may contain a Hebrew inscription. A reopened doorway on the east side of the chancel leads to the apse, which has a half-domed ceiling and a cobbled floor.

The chancel is dominated by a reconstructed shrine approximately 3 metres tall, standing on six short Romanesque columns carrying small arches on their abaci. The upper stage is reconstructed as a rectangular relic chest, clad in silk cloth between projecting bands, with the roof section similarly draped. Two tall opposed gables, each with six tiers of dove-wing or leaf crockets, rise from either side. The reconstruction carefully differentiates between original masonry and restoration work. The altar stands against the west side of the shrine, fronted with similar cloth as a frontal.