Church of St Brynach

Church of St Brynach

This is a parish church built of rubble stone with twentieth-century plain tiles on the roofs. The building comprises a medieval west tower and Victorian nave, chancel, north vestry and south porch.

The west tower is square and two-stage with an embattled parapet. It has a plinth with a slight chamfer, a rounded string course just below the lower windows, another string course at mid height, and a moulded string course under the battlements with rainwater spouts just below on the east and west sides. The bell-lights are two-light with pointed heads and cusped Y-tracery with louvres. There are nineteenth-century small Bath stone lancets at ground floor on the north and south sides with stone voussoirs. A large nineteenth-century grey sandstone two-light pointed window with a trefoil in the head occupies the west face. A small medieval loop appears above the west window and another on the south side.

The nave and chancel are built of squared purple and grey stone with steep roofs, coped gables with stone cross finials, chamfered ashlar eaves and chamfered plinth. The nave has pointed two-light windows with thick tracery and hoodmoulds, with stepped buttresses at each end. The north side of the nave has three windows, the south has a porch and two windows. The porch has a similar roof and coped gable, side buttresses, and a large continuously moulded ashlar arch with a hoodmould. It contains paired wooden gates, stone flags and stone seats. The south door has an ashlar pointed head dying into chamfered jambs with a hoodmould, and double boarded doors. An ashlar trefoil light appears on each side wall. The chancel is lower, with two cusped lancets to the south with hoodmoulds, stepped diagonal angle buttresses, and a large three-light east window with ogee lights and three rounded foiled lights in the head. The north side has an added vestry in rock-faced grey stone overlapping the nave, with a lean-to roof, a north two-light window and door with shouldered heads, and a west two-light window also with shouldered heads.

The interior is plastered throughout. The tower has a plastered pointed nineteenth-century arch, a raised floor with pews of circa 1865, and a flat ceiling. The nave and chancel have thin scissor-rafters to the roofs on brattished wall-plates. The windows are set in deep reveals with nineteenth-century tiles on the sills and boarded dado below. A tall and narrow pointed chancel arch in ashlar rests on short columns with carved corbels and moulded capitals. The inner arch contains ballflower ornament, the outer arch is chamfered all around with a hoodmould with carved stop. One step leads to the chancel, one to the sanctuary and one to the altar table. The chancel north wall has a broad Tudor-arched opening for the organ. The east wall has a tiled dado on each side of the reredos with biscuit-fired dust-pressed patterned tiles. Behind the altar under the reredos is a moulded shelf of grey and pink marble.

The font is medieval, retooled, and octagonal with a deep chamfered base on an octagonal shaft. An oak pulpit is carried high on a post with sturdy braces, has canted sides with open paired lancets over small carved square panels. Scrolled wrought iron altar rails are present. The oak reredos comprises five ogee cusped panels with the centre one taller, and outer piers with a carved angel with censer under an ogee canopy, moulded cornice and pierced cresting. An oak eagle lectern stands to the west, inscribed to W. de Winton 1823–1907, who read the lesson daily for thirty-six years.

The tower contains pews of circa 1865 and a memorial to J. J. de Winton died 1863 with unusually shaped ends and cinquefoil roundels, boarded backs and a pierced front kneeler. The nave pews have shaped ends with crosses in roundels, dated 1904. The chancel stalls are similar to those in the tower but with panelled backs and a pierced front kneeler. Painted metal Commandment and Creed boards stand at the east end of the nave, and two very large painted metal boards in the chancel depict angels, one with a lute and one with a censer.

The chancel east window is a fine example by Hardman of Birmingham dated 1861, a three-light window showing the Crucifixion on a deep blue ground with a red vesica behind the Christ figure. It is a memorial to Captain W. D. Seymour died at Gwalior 1859 and Catherine Seymour died 1857. The chancel south windows are two single-lights by W. Warrington dated 1863 in a highly coloured, painterly style, depicting a female saint with a dragon in a chalice and an angel with a lily, memorials to Captain Parry de Winton died 1861 and Hephzibah Frances de Winton died 1862. The nave south first window is a two-light window depicting David and Goliath, memorial to H. P. de Winton died 1902. The next two windows contain mid-nineteenth-century patterned glass with fleurs-de-lys. The tower west window dates from circa 1865, memorial to John Parry de Winton 1778–1864, and depicts two-lights with the Baptism and Ascension, similar to the east window but less well drawn. The tower north and south small single lights date from circa 1902, each depicting an angel in pale gold and silver, memorials to Frances de Winton died 1853 and Henry de Winton 1823–1901.

An important early Christian stone is positioned at the west end, probably a cross shaft decorated with four-cord crude interlace, a small figure at the top with upraised arms, a Maltese cross towards the bottom and a small bird below.

The organ dates from 1872 and was built by Gray and Davison; it is a single manual instrument.

Among the memorials, the north wall displays a fine marble memorial to Lieutenant Richard de Winton, died at Demerara 1841, with a relief portrait and military banner, by John Evan Thomas. A fine grey and white marble memorial with draped plaque excellently carved and partly covering a mourning cherub commemorates Charlotte, wife of J. P. de Winton of Maesderwen, died 1826, also by J. E. Thomas. A black and white marble shield plaque with an urn over it honours John Phillips of Tregare died 1763 and his wife died 1785. The south wall has a small marble sarcophagus memorial to the Reverend Thomas Williams, rector for fifty-six years, died 1839, by J. Thomas of Brecon. The chancel north wall displays a Gothic plaque to C. C. Clifton of Ty Mawr, died 1841, by J. Thomas of Brecon, and a Gothic plaque by Reeves of Bath commemorating the Reverend C. Clifton died 1847.