Church of St Cynyw

Church of St Cynyw

This Grade II* listed church is a structure without exterior differentiation between nave and chancel. The building, including its 19th-century vestry, is constructed in rendered stonework. A two-bay timber-framed and timber-panelled south porch adjoins the main structure. The roofs are covered in slate with tile ridges, and a 19th-century stone bellcote with an iron weathervane sits at the west end.

The main south doorway features an equilateral arch of two orders. The porch is positioned slightly to the east of this door, with inner timbering adapted to centre it better on the opening. The porch is a fine example of 15th-century timber framing with massive scantlings. It includes a cambered tile beam at the front with V-struts above and pegged arch-braces, along with carved bargeboards. The porch has side benches and is paved with cobbles.

The windows are a mix of Perpendicular medieval work and 19th-century insertions in a similar style. The east window is Perpendicular with a drop arch and three main lights. The south elevation contains two Perpendicular two-light windows and one three-light 19th-century window in Perpendicular style, all with flat heads and trefoiled lights. The north elevation features 19th-century windows: a trefoil-headed lancet and two flat-headed two-light windows. A high-level tri-segmental hexafoil 19th-century light appears in the west elevation. The north side of the vestry has a single lancet window.

A mural monument to Reverend H Foulkes, rector from 1729 to 1745, and his wife, daughter and son-in-law, stands at the left of the east wall.

Interior

The church is entered through the Perpendicular doorway at the south. The interior has escaped comprehensive 19th-century restoration and retains its post-medieval plastered barrel ceiling. A tie-beam is visible against the west wall. The chancel is one step higher and defined by a substantially surviving rood screen.

The rood screen has been stylistically dated to the third quarter of the 15th century. It consists of a beam supported on two carved posts, with additional posts (reduced to pendants in the mid-19th century) dividing the side compartments into five bays. Each bay is filled at the head with Perpendicular filigree carving. The central opening has a wider panel of similar carving that includes heraldic features. One panel has been replaced in iron. Above the panels, the rood beam is carved with a ragged staff and vine motifs on the west side and a pomegranate trail on the east side (the latter carving stylistically dated to around 1500). The top of the beam is now decorated with four small carved finials. The gallery at the west end of the church is also carried on two posts and has an heraldic carving in the head of its central opening, which may derive from the rood screen.

The west gallery has a plain panelled front, a raking floor, and three rows of pews. Its staircase in the south-west corner has a plain handrail on square balusters. The gallery front panelling resembles the wall dadoes at north and south. The font, octagonal and stone with a Tudor rose above the base and a wooden cover, is now recessed into the west wall beneath the gallery.

The pulpit, positioned at the left side, is panelled with cornice moulding and canted corners, and has a swept and coiled handrail with a turned newel. At the opposite side stands a hooded prayer desk donated in 1918.

Two banks of late 19th-century pews occupy the main body of the church, and an early 19th-century west gallery has been retained. A door at the left of the chancel beside the organ leads to the vestry. A stencilled band runs at the base of the vault, and a painted inscription appears over the east window.

The sanctuary is defined by a further step and by three-sided Communion rails of 17th-century type (altered since 1839, when the balusters were close-set and the enclosure smaller). The rails have a moulded and enriched handrail supported on turned balusters set into a plinth, with no gate. The altar stands against a carved Gothic 19th/20th-century reredos which extends to the side walls and reaches the sill of the east window. The upper panels are carved and painted, with a chalice at the centre and a Welsh inscription above the altar, and figures in the outer panels to the left and right. Above, on either side of the east window, are pictures painted directly onto the wall plaster, now faded: the Incarnation at left commemorating Reverend Thomas Richards, rector from 1826 to 1856, and the Resurrection at right commemorating Reverend M Jones, rector from 1856 to 1862.

The east window depicts the Crucifixion and was donated in 1909 to commemorate Reverend D Lewis, rector from 1877 to 1895. St Cynyw is depicted in the tracery lights. The only other stained glass is in a south window showing the Good Shepherd, Mary and St John, commemorating Reverend S Reed, rector from 1895 to 1906.

A wall memorial at the north of the nave bears a grey marble open pediment commemorating Canon Evans (1787), carved by John Nelson of Shrewsbury. Canon Evans is thought to have assisted Dr Johnson with information on words of Welsh derivation when Johnson was considering compiling a dictionary. A painted benefactions board is located in the vestry.