Church of Saint Afan

Church of Saint Afan

This is an Anglican parish church built of coursed rubble stone with Bath stone dressings and slate low-pitched roofs. The building comprises a nave with a west bellcote, south porch, south transept and chancel.

The west end is the most distinctive feature. It has a coped shouldered gable with flush quoins and a central narrow projection, also quoined. Below this is a sill-course supporting a two-light pointed window with lancet lights. Above the window is a blank roundel with quatrefoil and a hoodmould. The projection carries the bellcote, which has a steep chamfered ashlar base, small side buttresses, and a front string course beneath a pair of bell-openings with square heads in chamfered surrounds topped by ogee heads. The bellcote is finished with an ashlar steep gable and cross finial. There are panels of grey stone in the gable and below the string course.

The south porch is a coped gabled structure with an ashlar pointed arch whose double-chambered head dies into the sides, flanked by quoined side buttresses. Inside the porch, a collar rafter roof with braces carried up to the collars from a wall-board creates a three-sided profile. The south door is chamfered and pointed with pyramid stops to the chamfer, and consists of double board doors with wrought-iron fleur-de-lys hinges. To the right of the porch is a paired lancet window.

The south transept has a pointed south door with a gabled hoodmould and board door fitted with fleur-de-lys iron hinges. An off-centre two-light window sits above. The east side of the transept has a lean-to outhouse with a south door. The chancel has a coped east gable, a pair of lancets, and flush ashlar bands at sill and impost levels. On the north side of the chancel is a lean-to with a small three-light east window.

The nave's north side features a northeast round ashlar chimney and four windows: single lancets to left and right, with two pairs positioned between them. The plinth does not extend under the right lancet, indicating this section was added in 1866 along with the west wall.

The interior has rendered walls lined as ashlar with low-pitched roofs. The nave roof contains five original trusses with tie-beams and king-posts (posts slightly altered in 1866-7), while two western trusses dating from 1866-7 are collar-trusses with raking braces forming a five-sided profile. The chancel roof is plain boarded with a five-sided form, also dating to 1866-7. A plain lintel spans the south transept, which is raised on a wooden floor with steps up and a panelled front. A round-arched chancel arch with keystone connects the nave to the chancel. The chancel has a five-sided roof with moulded ribs on timber corbels. A narrow vestry door with a cambered head and iron strap hinges opens from the north side of the chancel. One step leads to the sanctuary, another to the communion table. A shelf is fixed to the left wall of the chancel. The vestry contains a corner fireplace.

The fittings of 1866-7 are by William Butterfield and include a massive plain ashlar octagonal font on a squat quatrefoil shaft, plain pine pews with shaped bench ends, a pine pulpit with a four-sided panelled canted front, a reading desk, and cast-iron chancel rails with plain gothic arcading and gates featuring quatrefoils in diagonally-crossed ellipses. A painted ashlar reredos by Butterfield consists of three panels: two square panels flanking a taller centre panel with a cusped pointed head.

The church contains two painted armorial hatchments to the fourth and fifth Earls (died 1873 and 1888), and an oak eagle lectern given in memory of the sixth Earl (died 1899). Two continental paintings from the 17th to 18th centuries depict the Resurrection and Virgin Mary. An organ of 1937 by Griffin & Stroud is installed, and tapestry panels in the pulpit and reading desk date from 1967.

The stained glass is particularly noteworthy. The east window, probably by Clayton & Bell and dating to around 1867, features six scenes in 14th-century Gothic style on red and blue grounds, commemorating the Countess of Lisburne (died 1851) and the Honourable Wilmot Vaughan (died 1853). Three windows are by Powell of Whitefriars: the west window of 1923 depicts Saints John and Michael as a war memorial; the nave's third north window of 1925 shows Saint Hubert and King Arthur in memory of the sixth Earl (died 1899); and the second window of 1945 commemorates Regina, Countess of Lisburne. The south transept window, dating to around 1900-10 and made by Shrigley & Hunt of Lancaster, shows Saints Asaph and David in memory of the Honourable E.C. Vaughan (died 1876).

Memorials include three plain matching late 19th-century marble plaques in the south transept commemorating members of the Vaughan family and the sixth Earl.