St Sawel Parish Church

St Sawel Parish Church, dating from the late 13th and early 14th centuries and restored in 1887-90, comprises a west tower, an aisle-less nave, a short chancel, and a vestry. The church is built of rubble with steeply pitched slate roofs, featuring coped and corbelled gables topped with cross finials. Wooden eaves project outwards. A dressed stone, 19th-century octagonal flue is located on the northeast corner of the nave.

The west tower is broad with a battered base and a stringcourse. It has a plain parapet supported by closely spaced corbels, possibly rebuilt in the late 18th century. A corbelled water-spout projects to the north, and a projecting northeast stair turret has loops for windows. A pointed doorway is set into the west side, framed by stone voussoirs. The nave has three restored lancet windows of red sandstone (from the Forest of Dean) on each side, featuring trefoiled heads. One small trefoiled lancet from around 1340 is on the extreme left of the nave, with red sandstone dressings and an ogee head. A similar window is positioned opposite it on the north wall, crafted from lighter stone. A stone tablet on the south wall commemorates Richard Griffiths of Cillyn, who died in 1724. The east end has a large triple lancet window from 1887 with a hood mould and stops, also using Forest stone dressings. A 14th-century lancet window is found on the south chancel wall, mirroring those in the nave, while a similar window exists on the north wall, but lacking the ogee head. A tablet on the south wall commemorates the 1887 restoration, and a blocked priest’s door is located to the left, with a stone lintel. Attached to the north side is a lean-to vestry, built in 1887, featuring a pointed east doorway with double-chamfered reveals and incised stops to the hoodmould. It has paired lancets with ogee heads, also dressed in Forest stone.

The interior is largely from the 1887 restoration. The west tower porch has a vaulted roof and a narrow door leading to the stair turret. A simple pointed chancel arch, dating from 1887, is flanked by small hagioscope windows. The nave is covered by a Victorian scissor-rafter roof supported by wall posts, while the chancel has a ribbed boarded roof of the same date, with a crenellated wall-plate. The font, with a plain chamfered rounded bowl on a square corbel, has been reset into the west wall north of the entrance. A projecting 19th-century square stone stoup is situated on the opposite side of the west wall. A raised, pentagonal Victorian pulpit stands nearby, with oak linenfold panelling on a Bathstone base. A florid Gothic carved stone reredos from 1890, a memorial to the Williams-Drummond family of Edwinsford, depicts the Good Shepherd and is flanked by cusped panels displaying the Ten Commandments. A trefoiled Victorian piscina is also present. Eight positions show signs of previous altars. The church contains 1887 pews, stalls, and a lectern. The sanctuary floor is tiled, a work by Godwin and Son from Hereford.