Church of St Cyndeyrn

Church of St Cyndeyrn

This is a medieval church with 19th-century Gothic alterations, comprising a nave, lower and narrower chancel, north aisle, chapel (now used as a vestry), and western tower. The building is constructed of rubble stone, partly rebuilt in snecked freestone in the late 19th century, with slate roofs behind coped gables on moulded kneelers.

The south wall of the nave is buttressed at the west end and features three 2-light geometrical windows. The right-hand window is stepped out from what was originally a rood-loft stair projection. The porch is positioned left of centre and has a round-headed doorway with double iron gates. The chancel contains two 2-light Decorated windows and a pointed door left of centre with vertical ribs. The east window is 3-light with 19th-century style Perpendicular tracery. The chapel has a similar east window in a continuous elevation but with a vertical joint marking the division between chancel and chapel. On the north side are two 2-light square-headed windows, renewed in the 19th century but retaining original heads with sunk spandrels and hood moulds. A lean-to boiler room was built further right in 1927. The north aisle has three 2-light square-headed windows and a blocked medieval doorway to the right with 4-centred arch and hood mould. The west wall contains a segmental-headed 3-light window.

The stark 3-stage western tower has a battered plinth and incorporates a porch in the lower stage. It has a simple pointed west doorway, small narrow stair windows to the south, and a similar window in the middle stage to the north face. Single-light belfry windows are set in heavy 20th-century concrete surrounds with louvres. The embattled parapet stands on a corbel table.

The earlier entrance is probably the western one, where the tower has a segmental tunnel vault. The nave west doorway has a single chamfer and weathered head stops to double ribbed doors. A simple empty niche stands above the doorway, and to its right is a weathered, cross-incised stoup. The west and south porches have pitched slate floors in diaper pattern. In the south porch, the single-chamfered south doorway is in a shallow recess, to the right of which is a simple stoup. The interior south porch walls, including the stoup, are pebble-dashed.

In the west wall of the nave is a pointed boarded door to the stair turret. The nave has a 3-bay late medieval north arcade with rectangular, chamfered piers that are plastered and double-chamfered arches. The roof has collar-beam trusses with diagonal braces below the collars, comprising 13 bays. The north aisle roof is similar. The lower, single-chamfered chancel arch is 2-centred. A similar but higher arch between aisle and chapel was infilled during the 1883–1888 restoration. The chancel and chapel each have a 6-bay arched-brace roof retaining some medieval woodwork. A 2-bay chancel arcade is similar to the nave arcade.

The chancel has a tiled sanctuary, a square piscina recess with projecting square bowl, and a corbelled aumbry in the northeast corner. The panelled wooden reredos was installed in 1930. Communion rails have iron uprights and a wooden handrail. Between chancel and chapel is a wooden screen made of re-used material from former pews, dated 1676 and inscribed as 'the gift of Thomas and Jane Lloyd'. It has fielded panels on the north side and relief-decorated panels to the south.

The early 20th-century font has an octagonal bowl and stem. Pews from the 1883–1888 restoration have simple moulded ends. The polygonal wooden pulpit, of similar date, stands on a stone base.

The church contains several memorials. In the nave south wall, beginning on the east side of the south door, is an inscription panel to Catherine Goldfrap (died 1784). A slate tablet commemorating Sir William Vaughan (1577–1641), the Newfoundland pioneer, was erected in 1987. Next to it is an alabaster panel on a slate background to David Saunders (died 1815), surmounted by a coat of arms and signed by E. Davis of London. Below the easternmost window is a similar memorial to John Saunders (died 1853). In the embrasure of the same window is a simple marble tablet to the daughters of David Saunders (all died 1864–1871). Above it is a scroll to John Saunders (died 1870) below a badge in low relief of the 51st Kings Own Light Infantry. In the east wall of the nave is a simple marble tablet to John and Mary Winwood (died 1843 and 1867) above a now illegible diamond-shaped memorial panel. On the left side of the chancel arch is a 1914–1918 war memorial. In the chancel south wall is an early 19th-century neo-classical female mourner with urn in low relief, its original accompanying memorial inscription panel now missing. A brass in the chancel north wall, by J. Wippell & Co of Exeter, is dedicated to Emmeline Jones (died 1887). Simple 18th-century wall memorials in the north chapel are to Rawleigh Mansel (died 1722) and Rawleigh Mansel (died 1740).

The east window contains glass depicting the Annunciation, dated 1979 by Celtic Studios of Swansea. In the nave, the easternmost window has 20th-century glass of a bishop blessing a family against a contemporary rural backdrop. The window next to it depicts the Crucifixion and Resurrection, dated 1895 by Ward & Hughes of London.