Church of St Non

Church of St Non

This substantial parish church consists of a wide tall nave that incorporates the previous nave and south aisle as a single chamber, built on sloping ground where the height of the east end is particularly conspicuous. The chancel sits on the axis of the original nave, creating the visual effect of being offset to the north, while the tower, similarly positioned on the original nave axis, appears to sit at the north-west corner. Crypt openings are visible on the south side of the nave.

The largely medieval masonry is constructed throughout from local rubble with slate roofs. Larger selected blocks of freestone with similar appearance form the dressings around doors, windows and angle-buttresses. A square string-course runs around the church at low level, except on the north side and chancel, following the slope of the adjacent ground. The nave gables are coped at both east and west ends. Diagonal buttresses are positioned at the east end of the nave and chancel. Both nave and chancel roofs are low-pitched, and the base of a lost cross survives at the east apex of the nave gable. The rainwater goods are of cast iron.

The tower is well-proportioned and square, with slightly battered outline throughout its height that becomes conspicuous below the low-level string course. It features restored crenellations at the top with flat copings and a strongly projecting string course, beneath which original corbelling survives at the base of the parapet. The restored west door is a 19th-century four-centred arch of two orders with double framed doors, each leaf boarded with four panels. The porch within the tower is vaulted, with the vice contained entirely within the wall thickness in the south-west corner rather than in a separate turret. Louvred belfry openings with equilateral arches face all sides; the lower stages contain slit openings plus one small 19th-century window above the door.

The nave has three windows on each side, all 19th century in simplified Perpendicular style with weathered hood moulds. Beneath the low string course on the south side are openings serving family mortuary vaults. The east window is also 19th century, comprising three lights with tracery, though its lower part has been walled up. A two-light 15th-century trefoil-headed window survives in the west wall of the former aisle.

The interior is entered through the porch beneath the tower at the west. A timber screen partitioning a vestry marks where the nave and former south aisle were divided. A flat ceiling extends across the full width of the nave and aisle without interruption, divided into six bays by cross-beams that serve as the tiebeams of the roof trusses, with ceiling ventilators in each end bay. The nave floor between the pew blocks is paved in terrazzo tiles, with plastered walls adorned only by staff beads at each window. The pulpit, carved in Gothic style, dates to 1930.

The chancel arch is chamfered and two-centred with exposed stones; a small hole has been deliberately left to show that one pier stone is chamfered on both sides. Below this, on the south side, is a lower arch, possibly from a tomb recess or former crypt, with corbels on the arch face towards the nave bearing 19th-century tooling marks. The chancel is finished in Gothic style, contrasting sharply with the plain nave. It has a four-centred ceiling divided by ribs into eight pointed panels springing from the cornice. The east window has decorative surround, while the altar table is framed in oak with trefoil inserts in the panel heads. Carved altar rails date to around 1931, with panelled and carved choir stalls and a carved reredos of around 1929.

All glazing is post-war. The east window, dated 1948, depicts Christ with St Non and St David. The east window of the aisle, dated 1951, shows St Cecilia and an angelic choir. The nave windows are plain with coloured edges, donated by parishioners around 1955.

Wall monuments have been collected in the chancel. The earliest is a floor stone of 1787, now displayed on the wall. A memorial to John Thomas of Lletty Mawr, JP, DL, dated 1812, is topped by a carving of a mourner and tomb. Two similar monuments to members of the Goring Thomas family, dated 1821 and 1838, feature reeded Tuscan columns on bracketed shelves with entablatures. An unusual glazed wall-tile memorial to members of the Goring Thomas family, whose bones were re-interred in the early 20th century, displays hand-painted lettering on a grey background.

The church contains four bells cast by Rudhall of Gloucester in 1753.