Church of St. Cynfelyn

Church of St. Cynfelyn

This is a parish church built of local rubble stone with cut local sandstone dressings, roofed in slate with coped gables and crenellated ridge tiles alternating in pairs with plain ones, and deep eaves. The building comprises a single nave and chancel in one, with an open bell-cote at the west end, a small north transept or chapel that may be medieval in date, and a south porch.

The church is designed in Early English style with lancet windows throughout. The exterior is strengthened by two step buttresses clasping the angles at the east and west ends, and features a rounded sill course running beneath the windows.

The west end displays two tall lancet windows with a roundel above under a pointed hoodmould, all set within chamfered surrounds of cut stone and glazed with diamond leading. The bell-cote has a tiny lancet in its base, steps in at the sides, and is gabled to form an oddly thin surround to a large pointed bell-opening with hoodmould.

On the south elevation, a gabled porch projects, with two lancets lighting the nave, each accompanied by a similar stepped buttress to the right. The sill course continues along this side, but there are no windows to the undifferentiated chancel. All windows are narrow with chamfered surrounds, cut stone voussoirs and hoodmoulds. The south porch has corner buttresses and a chamfered pointed arched doorway with a similar door within. The porch interior has large slate flagstone flooring, pointed panelled oak double doors, painted plaster walls and two open-back wooden benches.

The east end displays a sill band that steps up under a triplet of three tall lancets—the centre one taller than the others—each with hoodmoulds and diamond leading.

The north side is plainer and retains the most early fabric, being built of rough rubble stone with buttresses dated 1845 at each end but no windows. At the left end stands a blocked pointed chancel door with stone voussoirs, to the left of a transeptal chapel that remains from the earlier church. This chapel has one small, almost triangular-headed pointed window to the north gable end and a small lean-to on the west in the angle to the nave, with a north door.

Interior

The interior comprises a single nave and chancel with an open timber roof of seven trusses fitted with arched braces to curved collars, giving a rounded appearance. The walls are finished in painted plaster with a wooden floor. Windows have deep splayed reveals. A pointed chamfered arched opening leads to the north chapel, which contains two late-medieval king-post trusses, slate flags to the floor, and a tall late twentieth-century oak screen with Gothic panels and double central door.

The font is a large stone octagonal bowl with sides that taper and then curve below, probably dating to the fourteenth century. It stands on a more massive squat monolith base comprising an octagon shaft and square base; the base is said to carry a carved date reading "JD 1627".

The main body of the church's fittings date from 1844–46 and include bench pews with crude fleur-de-lys finials to the aisle bench-ends, a boarded dado, and a plain boarded low screen with octagonal newels topped with castellated finials. On the south side stands an oak hexagonal pulpit with paired lancets in panels, a moulded cornice, and curving steps approached with diagonally-set balusters and a turned newel to a curving handrail. Plain oak altar rails with square uprights and oak panelling to the east wall complete this ensemble, similar in style to the pulpit.

A fragment of a fifteenth-century screen—the heads of four cusped panels, each with two quatrefoils above—has been reset over a carved wood reredos of 1922 depicting a Crucifixion in bas-relief on the altar, created in memory of a member of the Langdale family killed in the First World War.

The church contains a brass memorial to Jane Gilbertson (died 1810) to the left of the altar, and a brass war memorial plaque to the First World War dead.

The stained glass includes a left lancet of 1854 by Hardman, with a design by J. H. Powell, featuring two medallion scenes in rich reds and blues. The right lancet is by Martin Travers, dating to 1938, and shows an elongated Angel of Justice with a child outweighing a tiny devil in the balances.