Church of St Illtyd

Church of St Illtyd

A parish church dating mainly from the Tudor-Gothic period, comprising a nave, lower and narrower chancel, a north aisle with a lower Lady chapel, and a northwest tower. The building is constructed of rubble stone with slate roofs behind coped gables and projecting eaves.

The three-bay nave is battered at the base and has a moulded cornice, except to the later western bay. The western bay contains a 2-light window, to the right of which is a full-height vertical joint marking the break between construction phases. To the left of the window is a square memorial tablet commemorating David Griffith (died 1732). The nave has a 3-light Perpendicular western window, beneath the sill of which are embedded stone uprights defining an earlier western doorway. The double gabled western bellcote has openings with elliptical arches.

The lower gabled south porch has double boarded doors set within a pointed doorway. Above it is a re-set sundial with gnomon and a plate dated 1773 by David Thomas, also recording Morgan Morgan and Thomas John as churchwardens. To the right of the porch is a 2-light window, then a 4-light square-headed window with hood mould and relief foliage in sunk spandrels. Below this window is a tablet erected to the memory of Edward Mansell (died 1710).

Areas of roughcast survive on the chancel south wall, which is battered at the base. It has two square-headed 2-light 19th-century windows with wooden tracery, between which is the arch of a former doorway blocked in 1910. Below it is a memorial slab commemorating the dead of three 19th-century shipwrecks on Cefn Sidan sand: the French vessel La Jeune Emma in 1828, one of whose victims was Adeline Coquelin, niece of Napoleon's consort Josephine; Brothers of Liverpool in 1833; and Pickering Dodge of the USA in 1839. The chancel and Lady chapel form a continuous east elevation, separated by a vertical joint distinguishing the phases. Both have 3-light square-headed windows with wooden tracery. On the north side of the chapel are two 2-light wooden-traceried windows, the left-hand one having a flat brick arch and the right-hand one having a wooden lintel, part of which has been removed. The north aisle projects beyond the line of the chapel and has three 2-light wooden-traceried windows under flat brick arches. Above the roof line, the creasing of an earlier and steeper aisle roof is visible in the east wall of the tower.

The fine four-stage tower has a higher northeast square turret. On the west face is a doorway with Tudor arch and continuous chamfer, to a door with vertical ribs. Above it the 2-light square-headed western window has a narrower relieving arch above. A narrow window is in the second stage, above which is a round clock face on the west, south and north faces, inserted in 1935-6. The north and east faces have small windows at second and third stages. The bell stage has 2-light openings with sunk spandrels and louvres, except the south face which has only a single-light opening. The crown, on a corbel table, is composed of stepped battlements.

The porch has an arched-brace roof on corbels, stone side benches, a large crudely worked stoup, and a shallow niche above the doorway. The doorway, with a plain 2-centred arch, has double doors inserted in 1988, but the earlier door, dated 1717 and incorporating vertical studded ribs, has been retained inside the porch. Above the inner face of the doorway, in the nave, is a small carved head, probably re-set.

Interior

The main interior has been stripped of plaster. The nave has a two-bay north arcade with octagonal pier and 4-centred arches. The arched-brace nave roof comprises 12 narrow bays. The chancel arch, narrowed but with the earlier arch still visible in the wall, is steeply pointed. To its left is a squint, and to its upper right is a former rood-loft doorway. In the western bay of the nave is a blocked segmental-headed tower window. The southeast nave window appears to have been associated with a tomb recess, as the embrasure continues to the ground. Above the present window the relieving arch of a former window is visible. The window has an ashlar embrasure with finely-moulded rere-arch, and its soffit is decorated with arms of the Butler and Beaufort families and a shield bearing the 5 wounds.

The chancel has an arched-brace roof of six narrow bays, similar to the nave. It has a two-bay north arcade, also similar to the nave. A recess marks a former south doorway. The east wall has a simple wood-panelled reredos. To its left is a tiny corbelled rectangular piscina and an aumbry with pointed head. In the north aisle and Lady chapel are embossed wagon roofs but not ceiled. A narrow pointed arch separates the aisle from the chapel. The 2-centred tower arch is continuous with a rendered tunnel vault.

The slender octagonal font is Perpendicular in style, dating from 1856, with quatrefoils around the bowl. The polygonal wooden pulpit, dated 1911, stands on a narrow bracketed base. Each facet has ogee-headed panels with marginal vine-trail decoration in low relief. Plain pews have moulded square ends. The choir stalls have richer moulded ends and the front rank has an open frieze of quatrefoils in lozenges. The early Georgian communion rail has turned balusters.

Numerous wall monuments are present. The recess in the chancel south wall has an oval tablet to Reverend Thomas Morgan (died 1817). Memorials to the Rees family of Cilymaenllwyd are in the nave south wall. The finest is to John Rees (died 1802), an alabaster sarcophagus with inscription surmounted by a draped urn on a triangular slate background. Others include slate tablets to John Rees (died 1843), Hector Rees (died 1760), and a brass memorial to Mansel Rees (died 1889). An oval marble tablet also in the south wall commemorates Robert Jones (died 1789).

In the nave west wall are three superimposed memorials. At the top is a corbelled marble panel to Anne Miller (died 1861), by Philip Rogers of Swansea. The next is a marble panel on slate background to Udea Onslow (died 1868), also by Rogers. Below is a less-well preserved slate memorial to Bennet Richards (died circa 1748). In the north chapel, starting at the northeast end, is a plain large marble panel to Edward Rees (died 1864) and family on a slate background by D Joslin of Peckham Rye, followed by a polished granite memorial to Lieutenant Colonel David Williams (died 1852). Further left is a plain panel on a slate background to Captain Benjamin Williams (died 1865), also by Joslin. Below it is a wooden benefaction board.

The east window depicts the Crucifixion, by Horace Wilkinson and dated 1926. The north chapel east window depicts the Nativity, by Celtic Studios of Swansea, but undated. In the nave south wall is Christ and Mary Magdalene, mid-20th century.