Church of St Cattwg

Church of St Cattwg

Parish church built of rubble stone with 20th-century concrete plain tiles to roofs that overhang at the eaves, which have recessed oak wall-plates. The building is a single vessel with a west bellcote, north porch and southwest vestry.

The west end has a large 1879 three-light window with a trefoiled roundel in the head, hoodmould and relieving arch over. The bellcote, also of 1879, is constructed of cut stone with a rectangular base, stringcourse, two cusped-pointed openings and coped gable.

The north wall has a small lean-to added to the right of the large north porch. This has rubble side walls but may have been timber-framed, as the walls enclose a large front oak frame with chamfered arched braces to a cambered collar, the braces forming a pointed arch. The foot of the right jamb is missing, with the remainder resting on rubble stone. An exceptional pair of late medieval or 16th-century bargeboards is ornamented with a sequence of roundels, each enclosing three mouchettes. The centre pendant is carved with an elongated face. Stone seats, 19th-century rafters and a tile floor complete the interior of the porch. A pointed chamfered grey stone north door has a 19th-century wire and timber Gothic door in front of a 19th-century inner door with Gothic intersecting cover strips. To the left of the porch, the north wall has three 2-light windows with cusped y-tracery: two to the nave and one to the chancel. The first has medieval red stone jambs; the second is apparently all 19th-century in grey stone; the chancel window is in red stone, mostly 19th-century. The east wall has a large 19th-century window in yellow sandstone with a sexfoil roundel in the head, hoodmould and stone voussoirs. The eaves are carried at angles on paired wooden posts down to 19th-century stone paired corbels. The south wall has three similar windows: a smaller chancel window in red stone possibly all medieval, and two larger 19th-century windows in grey stone. The windows have an attractive 19th-century lozenge pattern glazing. A small lean-to vestry at the left has grey stone quoins, a window on the east and a pointed door on the west wall.

The interior has plastered walls and an open scissor-rafter 19th-century roof. Two tie beams run to the nave. A 19th-century pointed door at the right of the south wall enters the vestry; 19th-century oak lintels span the windows. Some old stonework remains visible to the left window reveal on the north wall. The chancel is reached by one step, with one further step within the choir and steps on three sides of the sanctuary step, those on the sides in front of the chancel stalls. One step leads to the sanctuary and one to the altar. The chancel is marked by an arch-braced collar truss and tie-beam. The chancel has three arch-braced collar trusses on timber corbels and three rows of windbraced panels. A medieval square piscina on the south wall has a chamfered underside and nailhead ornament on the rim. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles.

The church contains a retooled 13th-century large round font with deep splayed underside on a round shaft. A late 19th-century pulpit has a timber canted front with blind tracery. A large wooden screen of 3-1-3 bays with traceried heads to openings, cornice and cresting was made in 1926 to the memory of Reverend T. Griffiths. Hanging above the pulpit is a rectangular sounding-board crudely made up from parts of a 15th-century screen, featuring vine scrolled borders and a panelled soffit. 19th-century pine pews have pierced Gothic front kneelers. Oak stalls feature a pierced frontal. Wrought iron scrolled standards support the altar rails. An oak reredos to Reverend W. Hughes, who died in 1886, has three ogee-traceried blind panels with cornice and cresting. An oak traceried altar dates from the early 20th century.

The stained glass includes a good 3-light east window to William Morgan of Bolgoed (died 1849) and his wife (died 1856), made circa 1879 possibly by Hardman. The west window, circa 1879, is dedicated to J.C. Pearce of the Church of Ffrwdgrech and depicts Faith, Hope and Charity, signed by Charles Gibbs. A south window of 1913 is dedicated to J. W. Morgan of Bolgoed (died 1892) and his wife (died 1903), depicting the Holy Family with Saints John and Elizabeth.

Memorials, numerous and grouped at the west end, include floor slabs from the late 17th to 19th centuries and wall memorials of 18th to 19th-century date. These include an eroded slab to Reverend Thomas Williams, Vicar Gwyn.