Church of St Cynog

Church of St Cynog

A simple Perpendicular-style church comprising a nave, lower and narrower chancel, south porch and north vestry. The building is constructed of rubble stone with slate roofs behind coped gables and a moulded stone cornice to the nave and chancel.

The south porch dates from the late 19th century and features a pointed doorway with continuous moulding and hood mould, along with double boarded doors fitted with strap hinges. The side walls of the porch contain square-headed single-light windows. The south wall of the nave displays two 2-light square-headed windows with cusped ogee lights. Both the nave and chancel carry rainwater heads dated 1895 on their south elevations.

The chancel contains a cusped window set back from the east end, a 3-light east window with hood mould, and a north window corresponding to the south window and positioned on the east side of the vestry. The vestry has a 2-light north window and a lintelled west doorway with boarded door. The north wall of the nave contains three square-headed 2-light windows similar to those on the south side.

The two-stage tower is battered at the base and has a plinth band. Above this is a deeply recessed window in the west wall, with a narrow loop positioned above it. The upper stage has narrow lintelled belfry openings with louvres. The embattled parapet projects on a simple corbel table, and behind it stands a saddleback roof with an apex weathervane.

The interior of the nave features a 4-bay arched-brace roof. The chancel arch has two orders of continuous chamfer and hood mould. The 3-bay arched-brace chancel roof displays foliage bosses salvaged from an earlier medieval roof. An organ recess on the north side of the chancel has two orders of chamfer dying into the imposts, with a pointed vestry door to its right. A similar pointed tower doorway is located at the west end of the nave.

A 15th-century bracket stoup survives on the right side of the south door, featuring a fine chip-carved design very similar to fonts at Llantrisant, Llanharry and Pyle. The font has an octagonal bowl mounted on detached marble shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. The simple polygonal wooden pulpit displays blind Gothic panels. Pews and choir stalls feature moulded ends, while the communion rail has twisted iron uprights with scrollwork brackets and a moulded wooden handrail. A panelled wooden reredos with brattishing stands behind the altar. In the southeast corner of the nave is a war memorial in the form of an alabaster wall tablet.

Additional memorials retained from the earlier church are positioned in the chancel. The south wall contains an alabaster wall tablet by Phillips of Talgarth commemorating Rev Lewis Price (died 1812) and his family, erected around 1865. Next to it is a polished granite wall tablet to Watkin Rhys (died 1880). Brass plaques dated 1886 on either side of the east window commemorate the Morgan and Harris families of Bodwigiad.

Several windows contain stained glass. The east window, dating from 1896 and depicting the Ascension, and the contemporary south chancel window showing the Presentation at the Temple, were designed by Henry Holiday and made by Powell's of London. The north chancel window depicts the Virgin Mary and is in the style of Edward Burne-Jones. In the nave, the south wall displays Saints David and Andrew at its east end, commemorating William Menelaus (1818-83), engineer and manager of the Dowlais ironworks, and Faith and Charity to the west, dating from 1947 and made by Powell's. The east window of the north wall of the nave contains male and female figures dating from around 1919, while the west window is a late 20th-century replacement depicting Saints Peter and Paul.