St. David's Parish Church

St. David’s Parish Church is a building of medieval origin, largely re-faced in the 1893 restoration. It consists of a nave, chancel, and a north aisle. A south porch with an open front and an iron gate leads into the church. The church has gabled ends, with a bellcote housing two bells positioned over the west gable. Decorative corbels are spaced along the eaves to support a large cast-iron rainwater gutter, and the roof is covered with modern tiles.

The windows, dating from the 1893 restoration, have single or double trefoil-headed lights with label moulds. The east window is a three-light window in the Decorated style. The bellcote also dates from the late 19th century and features decorative corbels, a military-style loophole opening to the west, a string course above the gable coping, paired lights with louvres, and a finial cross at the gable top.

On the east face of the church, a memorial slab commemorates John Thomas of Trewern, who died in 1730, featuring a skull and crossed horns. Another 18th-century inscribed stone, now nearly illegible, appears to mark a rebuild of the chancel during the 18th century.

The nave has a slightly narrower chancel, raised two steps, and a north aisle extending along the chancel and one bay of the nave. The roofs are from the 19th century, with four bays in the nave and two in the chancel. The roof structure includes arch-braced collar beams with posts and V struts over the collars, the arch-braces rising from corbels well below the wallplate level, and single purlins on each side.

A 1996 renovation involved removing internal plaster, revealing complex stonework that suggests the 19th-century external restoration primarily involved re-facing rather than rebuilding. Surviving mediaeval interior features include the aisle arcade and the chancel arch. A single segmental arch connects the nave to the aisle, with chamfering on the nave side. Within the chancel are two late mediaeval four-centred arches with rounded hollow chamfers. These arches have two orders on the aisle side, the upper order being segmental, and they rest upon a single round column with a simple cap and cable moulding, as well as octagonal impost piers. The chancel arch is pointed, wide, and irregular.

A particularly interesting grotesque carving is found on the north side of the aisle arcade; it is a two-tier corbel with dissimilar faces of primitive character. This corbel is so integrated with the late mediaeval arches that it is believed to be of rustic origin.

Most windows contain stained glass. The font is square and sits on a modern base. The church also holds plain and encaustic tiles bearing the arms of Richard Lewis, Bishop of Llandaff (formerly vicar of Llanddewi Velfrey). Two memorials, both dated 1816 and carved by James Smith of Portland Road, London, are present. One commemorates Eleanor Lewis of Henllan, depicting a young lady on her deathbed with an angel pointing to heaven; the other commemorates David Lewis, also of Henllan, featuring a mourning figure beside a pillar with a draped urn. A curious memorial to Rhys Beynon (of Trewern), who died in 1872, is located in the north aisle, incorporating a glass photograph.