Church of St Ystyffan

Church of St Ystyffan

This is a medieval parish church with 19th-century restorations, built on a cruciform plan. It consists of a west tower, nave, lower chancel, north and south transepts, a south porch, and northeast and south chapels. All parts except the tower are constructed in whitewashed rubble stone with pitched slate roofs and shouldered gables topped with stone coping.

The 15th-century tower is built in coursed rubble and tapers upward without buttresses, sitting on a battered plinth beneath a raised string course level with the arch springs to the west door. It features an embattled parapet on stone corbels with a higher stair turret at the northeast angle. The bell openings on the north, east and south faces are single trefoiled louvres, while the west face has a smaller arched opening. There are vent loops to the turret and a blocked 2nd-storey ogee-headed opening on the north side, now replaced by a small arched opening with a stone sill. The west side displays a broad pointed arched-headed ground floor door with recessed stone voussoirs and a slate hood, topped by paired boarded timber doors. Above this is a flat-headed 3-light traceried window dated 1869, with arched heads and incised spandrels, set beneath a stone voussoir relieving arch and an offset slate gabled hood.

The windows throughout the church are characteristically ashlar square-headed 2-light openings with trefoil heads and hoodmoulds. The north side has two windows to the nave with earlier voussoir arches above the present openings. The north transept has one window to the north. The northeast Lloyd's chapel has a matching window to its north side. The east end has one window each to the chapel and chancel, equally sized in matching style. The south chancel wall features an arched-headed, deeply-recessed 4-panel timber door with arched heads to the upper panels, chamfered sandstone dressings, a hoodmould, and jambs rising from plinth blocks; a single-light window stands to its left. The south transept's east side shows a blocked window with stone voussoirs above, accompanied by a small slate inset datestone reading 1807. The south end has a 2-light window. The south porch, positioned to the left, has an arched head with stone voussoirs above a later 20th-century boarded timber double door with coloured glazing to the upper panels forming a circle at the centre. A stone set into the wall above reads: "Notice. All the sittings in this church are free. Rev B Evans Vicar. John Davies, Henry Parnall Churchwardens. 1873". One 2-light window with stone voussoirs is visible above to the left of the porch. Cast-iron rainwater goods, painted throughout, run along the exterior.

The interior is rendered and aiseless, featuring broad curved ribbed plaster ceilings installed in 1844–45 and crude plastered pointed arches without mouldings, splays or capitals. A hagioscope, or "squint", to the altar is visible in the north transept. The north transept ceiling carries a small stucco rose with margins and light foliate design at its centre, dating to the late 17th or early 18th century. The Lloyd Chapel to the northeast, added in the mid-16th century, contains a 2-bay arcade of roughly 4-centred arches on a large square pier with a simple cap; an early 19th-century roof of bolted timber trusses and double purlins spans above. Large stone corbels above the arcade face the chancel.

The porch contains a place for a stoup and a niche above the inner door, formerly housing an image of the Virgin Mary. A plain arched stone piscina is located in the chancel. The 12th-century font has a large, square scalloped bowl with a later rounded shaft on a 15th-century base reused from an old tomb, decorated with square rosettes. An 1869 scalloped freestone font imitates the original. Pitch pine pews with lightly carved terminals furnish the nave. A large 1887 pipe organ by Wedlake of London stands in the church, featuring gilded decoration to pipes and timber panelling. A carved 3-sided pulpit of the later 19th century includes 2-light and quatrefoil blind tracery to its panels and a carved cornice.

Stained glass windows include: in the nave northwest, the Empty Tomb (c.1885); in the nave north, Faith and Charity (c.1886); in the nave southwest, Life of Christ (c.1884) — all richly coloured with elaborate canopy work by makers unknown. The south transept's south window depicts the Good Samaritan (1881). The chancel's east window is by John Petts of Llansteffan (1980), showing a swirl of symbols and monograms in pink and orange hues. Decorative glass by Petts also appears in the south porch (1974). The aisle's east window portrays Christ and Mary Magdalene (1953, Celtic Studios). The chancel's south window dates to 1956.

Monuments are numerous and well-documented. In the Lloyd's Chapel stand two hatchments and several memorials: a flat stone slab with marginal inscription and large incised shield to Rice Lloyd (1622), contained within 19th-century railings; a floor slab with partly Latin inscription to Rev. William Lloyd (1706); and Lloyd memorials dated 1670, 1718 and 1795 in the same location. In the south chancel, a vast tablet framing an oval inscription and tall draped urn to Richard Howell (1820) is signed D. Hewett & Co., Bristol. A Greek-detailed pediment tablet to Anne Lloyd (1831) is by H. Wood, Bristol. In the north chancel, a large tablet with naval equipment above commemorates Commander Henry Lloyd, drowned at sea (1832). Mary Morris (1835) is remembered by a large Neoclassical tablet by Daniel Mainwaring, featuring fluted pilasters tapering downwards, a fluted frieze, and side urns flanking a larger central urn. William Lloyd (1840) is commemorated by a large, framed marble tablet with an open book to the pediment, by H. Wood. Captain Henry Davidson (1842) is depicted in a large scene by Bedford of London, showing a weeping woman before a sarcophagus bearing urns with drooping palm fronds. Mary Charles (1873) has a tall tablet with simple Greek detail, signed T. Tyley, Bristol. In the south nave, Rev. Benjamin Evans (1885) is remembered by a Gothic and gabled monument with crockets. In the north nave, Robert Parnall (1885) is commemorated by an elaborate Gothic piece with an alabaster cusped frame and coloured colonettes. A marble tablet in the porch with mosaic surround and Bathstone frame commemorates the 1874 restoration undertaken at the expense of Henry Parnall.

Wall paintings survive in traces: in the south transept, a few remains of black-lettered Welsh inscription, possibly the Welsh Apostle's Creed of either 1567 or 1621. In the north transept, further traces include a representation of a harp.