Church of St Egwad

Church of St Egwad

A Tudor-Gothic church of rubble stone with slate roof, comprising a nave with lower and narrow chancel, a west tower, and a north aisle and vestry (formerly a chapel) all under a single roof with battered base. The walls feature larger dressed quoins, though the southwest quoins of the nave have been renewed.

The south wall of the nave contains a 17th-century doorway with segmental head and single continuous chamfer, fitted with 19th-century double boarded doors and strap hinges. To the right is a 2-light window with pointed lights and hood mould, followed by a 3-light window with round-headed lights. Below this latter window is an early memorial with pediment attached to the wall. The other nave windows are square-headed with sunk spandrels. At the east end of the nave, a rood stair projects under an outshut roof, with a gabled 3-light window on the right side lighting the former rood, featuring round-headed lights and weathered hood mould.

The chancel has a cusped single-light 19th-century window in the south wall and a 3-light east window renewed in 1861 with round-headed lights and hood mould. On the north side, set back, is a similar but original 3-light vestry east window, below which are stone steps to a boiler room. The vestry has a 3-light north window with round-headed lights and drip mould. The north aisle contains two 2-light windows with pointed lights and similar drip moulds, and a 3-light west window which is a 20th-century replacement or insertion.

The three-stage tower is battered at the base. Its west door sits under a relieving arch, recessed beneath a corbel table, with a 2-centred head featuring 2 continuous orders of wave moulding and 19th-century double boarded doors with strap hinges. The second stage has a small narrow window in the south face. The bell stage displays single-light cusped windows: the west and south are glazed (the south being a 19th-century replacement), while the north and east have louvres (the north window being a 19th-century replacement). The embattled parapet projects on a corbel table.

At the base of the tower, which contains a plastered segmental tunnel vault, stands a stoup with pointed trefoil head. This was likely the main entrance in pre-Reformation times.

The interior reveals considerable medieval work. The nave features an elliptical 19th-century boarded wagon roof on corbelled ribs. The 4-bay north arcade is late medieval with plain chamfered square piers and pointed arches. A high segmental-headed doorway on the east side of the arcade leads to the vestry. The west wall contains a pointed doorway with 19th-century studded door accessing the stair turret. The south wall has a doorway with Tudor arch leading to the rood stair, which retains stone treads. The lower chancel arch has a single order of chamfer, with a square-headed squint on its right side.

The north aisle retains an 8-bay late medieval arched-brace roof with some 19th-century replacement. A partition now separates the aisle from the vestry. The vestry, formerly a chapel, retains a plastered wagon roof on a moulded cornice. The chancel features a shallow segmental wagon roof of 19th-century date. Between chancel and vestry is a wide segmental arch.

The furnishings are largely of 1861 and include an octagonal 19th-century font, pews with shaped ends, a polygonal wooden pulpit, and open-fronted choir stalls with poppy heads. The communion rail, possibly later, has iron uprights, scrolled brackets and wooden rail. Two windows contain stained glass: the central light of the east window shows John the Baptist and is dated 1865, while the north aisle west window of circa 1968 depicts the inscription "suffer little children".

Several memorials are present. The chancel north wall holds a Gothic wall tablet to David Jones (died 1869). The chancel south wall displays four large simple slate memorials of 18th and 20th-century date and a small alabaster tablet with draped urn commemorating Rev William Williams (died 1827). The nave west wall contains a marble tablet with pediment by J W Davies of Llanfynydd, commemorating the dead of the 1914-18 war.