Church of Saint David

Church of Saint David

This is a parish church, mostly built of squared rubble stone with slate roofs, red terracotta ridges, and coped gables finished with cross finials. The building comprises a nave and chancel, a parallel-roofed north aisle, and a northeast chapel, with a medieval west tower positioned at the end of the north aisle.

The tower is constructed of rough rubble and is large and plain, tapering upwards with a corbelled flat parapet. It features small louvred rectangular bell-lights—a pair on the south side and a single opening on the west—as well as two similar narrow loops on the west side. The west door, dating to the 19th century, has a pointed arch that oddly supports the mullions of a three-light late Gothic style ashlar window with a hoodmould.

The west face of the nave displays a quatrefoil roundel with voussoirs in the gable, three long lancets with stone voussoirs and trefoiled roundels in their heads, and two large buttresses with battered plinths and sloping tops. A bull-nosed string course runs above the plinth. The southwest corner has a two-step buttress. The south side features a two-light window with a quatrefoil above and stone voussoirs to the left of a large gabled porch. The porch itself has a pointed arch with a moulded head and stone voussoirs, with plinth moulding carried around it and a pointed inner door. Two similar two-light windows stand to the right of the porch with a small buttress between them. A large buttress rises at the nave's southeast corner. The chancel has two two-light windows with quatrefoil roundels and stone voussoirs, separated by a small buttress. The east end features a large three-light window with a sexfoil in the head and stone voussoirs, with a buttress to its right. The northeast chapel has a single long east lancet, while its north side displays two two-light windows with plain cusped lancets. The north side of the nave shows big buttresses at each end with plinth moulding and two two-light windows with quatrefoils and stone voussoirs.

The interior walls are plastered. The nave roof is an open timber construction with four arch-braced collar trusses featuring wishbone braces above the collar, springing from fluted corbels which also carry arched braces up to the purlins. A segmental-pointed tower arch with stone voussoirs separates the nave from the tower, which has a plastered vault asymmetrical to the west window. A segmental pointed door to the tower stair is located in the northwest corner. The chancel arch is broad and moulded with a pointed profile; the outer order is keeled while the inner order springs from a triplet of marble-shafted columns set upon a large fluted corbel heavily moulded with nailhead and keeled mouldings. Openings on the south side have chamfered segmental pointed reveals. The north side features a three-bay arcade on octagonal columns banded in grey stone with moulded caps and bases; the east respond is not banded. The arches are heavily moulded and pointed, though one is narrower than the others. The north aisle has a steep rafter roof carried on corbels on the south side with raking braces creating a six-sided profile. The northeast chapel has a scissor-rafter roof and a two-bay arcade with a banded round column and non-banded responds, with pointed arches. The chancel has brattished wallplates broken on the north for the arcade, and close-spaced transverse ribs to a pointed roof. One step rises at the chancel arch, with three steps leading to the sanctuary.

The east wall features a carved stone reredos commissioned in 1894 by the architect John Foster and designed by his partner Joseph Wood. It comprises three inlaid marble squares with a cross, alpha, and omega, flanked by crocketted statue niches beneath paired tall crocketted finials. The statues were added in 1926. Linenfold panelling lines each side, and the chancel floor is laid with encaustic tiles, currently under carpet, that commemorate Admiral J.L. Stokes, who died in 1885.

The church contains numerous fittings of note. A square scalloped font in 12th-century style, heavily painted, stands in the nave. A massive ashlar drum pulpit in High Victorian style rises on a squat column base with four detached marble-shafted colonnetes; the drum is banded below with nailhead, has a moulded top band, and features a sunk vesica-shaped panel and four small roundels all inlaid with marble and carved with the IHS symbol and Evangelists' symbols. An oak eagle lectern commemorates the Reverend F. Foster. The organ, housed in a pitch pine case by Vowles of Bristol dating to 1874, is a prominent feature. Twentieth-century chancel stalls and reading desks include a memorial to two Evans sons drowned in 1948. Oak altar rails and pitch pine pews with panelled ends complete the furnishings.

The stained glass is extensive and commemorative. In the nave's south side, the first two-light window shows the road to Emmaus and commemorates the Reverend W. Watson, who died in 1941; the second window depicts the Magi and was created in 1940 by C.C. Powell for the Izard family; the third, richly coloured and showing Christ with Martha and Mary, commemorates H.M. Macbean, who died in 1881, and was created by Bell of Bristol. The west three-light window, showing "Suffer the children," commemorates E.T. Massy of Cottesmore, who died in 1882, and his wife, who died in 1888, and was created by A.L. Moore of London. In the tower vestry, a single-light window depicting Saint David dates to 1909 and is by Powell. The north aisle's second window shows the Nativity and commemorates Fanny Samson, who died in 1928; the third depicts the Resurrection and commemorates Louis Samson, who died in 1925, both by Powell. The northeast chapel contains three windows: the first, showing Saints Mary and Cecilia, dates to approximately 1988; the second, depicting Lazarus and Joseph, dates to approximately 1979; and the east lancet, the "happy warrior," is a war memorial from approximately 1920. The chancel's south side includes a two-light window showing "Feed my sheep" with a portrait, commemorating the Reverend F. Foster, who died in 1898, and a second window in similar style commemorating Emily Foster, who died in 1891, showing Christ and Mary. The east window, depicting the Crucifixion in 15th-century style, dates to 1887 and is by Burlison & Grylls.

The church houses a collection of memorials. On the west wall, several monuments have been reset, including a 18th-century memorial to Katharine Philipps with a cornice and two cherub heads below; an unidentified early 18th-century memorial draped with cherub heads; a matching memorial to Dame Mary Philipps with arms above and cherubs below; and a plain neo-Grec memorial to Thomas Lloyd of Glanafon, who died in 1851. A scrolled plaque on the south wall commemorates D. Morgan Lloyd of Glanafon, who died in 1868, and his wife, who died in 1871. In the vestry stands a marble plaque to David Evans, who died in 1830, in grey marble with a reeded surround, created by Phillips of Cartlett. An aisle plaque commemorates Colonel F. Williams of the Royal Marines, who died in 1830, and is finely carved with an urn and neo-Grec detail by Reeves & Son, Bath; another aisle plaque to Mary Ann Beezard, who died in 1821, features an urn. Behind the organ sits an oval plaque to John Williams of Cott, who died in 1799, and his wife and son, who died in 1800, created by Daniel Mainwaring of Carmarthen. In the northeast chapel, a marble plaque commemorates Edith Massy, who died in 1848, in simple neo-Grec style, created by J. Thomas of Pembroke Dock.