Llanfihangel Abercowyn New Church

This is an Anglican parish church, built in the 19th century, and incorporating significant additions and alterations in the early 20th century. The exterior is whitewashed roughcast with slate roofs, and features a large, slate-hung timber belfry on the nave roof ridge. The church consists of a four-window nave and a lower, two-window chancel; dressings are whitewashed stone, said to be red sandstone, with rubble stone plinths. The north and south windows of the nave are two-light, long traceried windows with varied apex designs, including quatrefoil and cinquefoil motifs, replacing Y-tracery windows from 1847. The window jambs extend as a thin moulding to the plinth. The west gable has two taller, similar windows separated by a massive stone buttress. The gables are coped with cross finials. The square belfry has sloping slated sides and bisected, louvered bell openings, topped with a steep pyramid roof. A north porch, dated 1915, is situated in the west bay of the nave. It has a coped north gable, a stone cross finial, two north buttresses, square-headed two-light windows to the north and east, and a cambered-headed double door to the west, set within a surround with a moulded, dying into broad, chamfered flanks. The doors are vertically panelled in studded frames, with wrought iron hinges and latch. The chancel has simple, narrow single lights dating from 1915, with shallow pointed heads to the north and south, and a large, three-light pointed east window with a hood mould, pointed cusped heads to the lights, and trefoils in the spandrels. An attached south vestry, also from 1915, has a flat roof, a coped parapet, and rubble plinths. There is a flight of stone steps leading to a painted, boarded basement door on the east side, accompanied by a narrow, leaded light to the left. A pair of square-headed two-light windows with Bath stone dressings face south. Three stone steps lead to a painted, boarded timber door at the west end.

The interior was rendered in 1915. The nave has boarded roofs and tie-beam trusses, likely dating from 1847-8. However, beneath the trusses at the west end are massive oak supports for the 1915 belfry, consisting of square posts with arched braces forming narrow side arches and a broad, cambered centre arch. The church boasts an exceptional Norman tub font with interlaced arcading in incised line decoration. The chancel features an east window dating from 1895, depicting The Last Supper, by Clayton & Bell, which was a gift from R. Carver of Cheltenham. A Gothic timber, octagonal pulpit from 1915 has panelled sides, with a band of quatrefoil blind tracery in the head of each panel, and steps up with a turned newel and moulded rail. The oak, seven-panel altar front has blind tracery on the panels, with a cross in the centre. It matches the 1930 reredos by Mowbray and Co, which features similar panels on either side of a projecting central canopy. The reredos is complemented by a crested cornice, vertical wall panels each side of the altar, and low dado panelling to the side walls. The oak communion rails have a traceried band underneath the rail. Linked chairs serve as seating in the nave, while paneled timber stalls are situated in the chancel and date from 1915, made by Caroe.