Tower of Old Church of St Gwynno is a Grade II listed building in the Brecon Beacons National Park local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 6 June 1962. Church tower.

Tower of Old Church of St Gwynno

WRENN ID
fading-portal-sepia
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Brecon Beacons National Park
Constituency
Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare MP: Gerald Jones (Lab)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
6 June 1962
Type
Church tower
Address
Tower of Old Church of St Gwynno, Vaynor, Merthyr Tydfil
OS grid reference
SO 048 102
Coordinates
51.78316, -3.38119
Source
Cadw listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Tower of the Old Church of St Gwynno is located at the west end of a demolished medieval church. It features a small tower with sloping roofs on either side. The tower has a battlemented parapet on the west and east sides and a gabled tiled roof in between. The west front of the tower includes a loop, a small rectangular opening in the middle, and the left side of a blocked door, which was arched in a photograph from 1865. The sides of the tower are plain and have slate roofs that continue the pitch of the main roof, which has been lost. On the east side, which was formerly the west end of the nave, there is a corbelled block of masonry positioned high up, the purpose of which is unknown. There is a low door on the west side with a cambered yellow brick arch, which has been infilled below a taller cambered head made of stone voussoirs. To the right of this door, there is another door with a stone slab lintel leading into a space north of the tower, which has stone steps leading up to the former bell loft.

Local climate

Tower of Old Church of St Gwynno sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,270 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 94% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 85% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 54 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 94% of listed buildings. Of these, 30 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Gravestone of Robert Thompson Crawshay and surrounding railings Grade II 102 m
  2. Hy Brasail Grade II 192 m
  3. Fingerpost near Church of St Gwynno Grade II 327 m
  4. Pontsarn Railway Viaduct (also in Vaynor) Grade II* 466 m
  5. Pontsarn Railway Viaduct (also in Pant Community) Grade II* 469 m
  6. Road bridge near former Pontsarn Station Grade II 546 m
  7. Pont-Sarn Grade II 618 m
  8. Pont-sarn Grade II 619 m
  9. Blaenygarth Grade II 1.3 km
  10. Centre ventilation shaft to Morlais Tunnel Grade II 1.5 km