Church of St Padarn

Church of St Padarn

A simple Gothic style church comprising a nave with lower chancel and south porch-tower, built of snecked rock-faced stone with lighter freestone dressings and slate roofs behind coped gables on moulded kneelers.

The three-stage porch-tower has angle buttresses in the lower stage and a north-west polygonal turret under a pyramidal stone roof. The pointed south doorway has continuous mouldings and a gabled hood, with double boarded doors. In the middle stage are a pair of hooded south windows. A string course sits below the taller upper stage, in which windows are recessed between pilaster strips and beneath an arcaded frieze. Paired bell openings have louvres and are beneath a single pointed arch with string course at impost level. A freestone cornice, incorporating a billet frieze, is below a swept pyramidal slate roof with apex weathervane.

The nave has angle buttresses. To the right of the tower the nave has a single light below the eaves and two pairs of pointed lights further right. The chancel has two pairs of similar windows. In the east wall are three stepped narrow pointed windows, a circular light in the gable, and a battered plinth. On the north side is a pointed window and an outshut vestry, which has a pointed east doorway with boarded door, shouldered north window and pointed west window. The nave has three pairs of north windows similar to the south ones. A second vestry at the west end of the north wall, added in 1905, has a pointed boarded east door, shouldered north window above a ramp to the basement boiler room, and a pair of pointed west windows. The west wall of the nave has three stepped pointed windows under a linked hood mould, which continues as a stepped string course.

The exceptionally interesting feature of the church is the early to mid-12th century south doorway. It has a single order of nook shafts with cushion capitals. The left capital has male and female figures, possibly Adam and Eve and the woman with a long pony tail, with a head carved between them, possibly the head of the serpent. The right-hand capital depicts a dragon turning to devour a bird while its head is bitten by what is probably a dog. The abacus on the right side has a weathered chip-carved pattern above a row of balls, and on the left side a dragon with an interlacing body. The tympanum is supported on corbels, of which the left-hand is weathered but the right-hand retains a male head with pencil moustache and goatee beard. The tympanum has a lintel scored with a Tau-pattern frieze. The tympanum itself does not quite fit the space laterally, and is truncated vertically. Originally the tympanum may have consisted of two stones, as at Kilpeck in Herefordshire and Pauntley in Gloucestershire. The tympanum depicts a tree sprouting from the head of a cat. To the right is a lion and to the left an unidentifiable quadruped, both of which have tails through their hind legs that end in trefoils. To the left of the cat's head is a disc with an eight-pronged star pattern, probably representing the sun. The arch has two orders of zig-zag and a 19th century hood mould.

Set high in the east wall of the porch are two Norman corbels, probably from a corbel table, comprising a double-headed Janus and a Sheila-na-gig. In the west wall of the porch is a small stone with the Roman inscription 'VAL FLAVINI'. It is said to have been found in the dismantled masonry of the previous church and may have been salvaged from nearby Castell Collen Roman fort.

The main interior is ashlar-faced, with a sill band in the west wall. The inner side of the south doorway has a continuous roll moulding. To its right is a shouldered lintel to a recessed boarded door to the turret. The nave has a seven-bay arched-brace roof on corbels and windbraces. The two-centred chancel arch has polygonal responds, hood mould and head stops. In the chancel is a boarded canted ceiling. A pointed north vestry doorway has two orders of chamfer and half-round responds.

There are two fonts. A plain octagonal 15th century bowl is mounted on reconstructed masonry and has a wooden cover inscribed 'IDV 1679'. The 19th century octagonal font has a shaped bowl and stem. Pews have shaped ends, and the polygonal wooden pulpit has Gothic arched panels. The wooden communion rail is on scrolled iron uprights.

Several wall tablets are present. In the nave north wall, beginning at the west end, is a polished stone tablet commemorating the 1914-18 and 1939-45 wars. A tablet to David Williams (died 1793) comprises an inscription panel with apron, surmounted by an urn. A monument to Evan Williams Davies (died 1838) has a panel flanked by inverted torches, surmounted by a broken Ionic column and weeping willow. A monument to Evan Davies (died 1834) has an inscription panel with pilasters, entablature, and surmounted by a draped urn. In the chancel south wall is a monument to John Price (died 1798) by TB of Newbridge. It has an inscription panel with apron, fluted pilasters, entablature and swept pediment. A monument to James Jones (died 1733) is by Davies of Builth, an armorial tablet with inscription in a roundel. The chancel has four brass plaques to the Chesment Severn family (died in the period 1873-1907), all signed by Frank Smith & Co of London. Another unsigned plaque commemorates the rebuilding of the church in 1879.