Church of St Illtyd

Church of St Illtyd

The Church of St Illtyd stands on steeply rising ground in a picturesque setting formed by its composition of nave, chancel, small vestry to the south of the chancel, south porch, and a tower positioned on a slightly different alignment in the space between the vestry and porch. This unusual tower placement is characteristic of a small group of Gower churches, notably like that at Llangennith.

The masonry throughout is uncoursed axe-dressed limestone, except the tower which is constructed in smaller, slightly coursed stonework. The west wall on low ground is strongly battered. All roofs are slate, with Bath-stone coped gables to the east and west of the nave, to the chancel and porch. The gables of the chancel, porch and west nave carry small stone cross finials, while the vestry gable is a plain verge. A parapet wall links the east side of the tower to the nave east gable.

The tower is low but massive, featuring one small window to the south, numerous putlog holes, belfry slits to east and west, and roof vent slits to north and south. Its crenellated parapet rises to gables on the north and south sides that cover the ends of a saddleback roof—an important locally characteristic feature among Gower churches. The east and west sides of the parapet are carried on billet corbels.

The windows are all restored. The east window contains three lights in Early English style beneath an equilateral pointed arch with crowned heads as label terminals. The chancel north wall has a single lancet and a blocked square opening with timber lintel. The vestry east wall contains a high-level opening blocked in brickwork, while its south wall has a buttress with door and window. The west window displays two trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil top light, with an ogee head and label carried vigorously to a finial with plain terminal blocks. The nave has single tall trefoil-headed lancets to south and north, the latter accompanied by a blocked central doorway with rounded head and a two-light window with trefoil heads and top quatrefoil under an unshaped extrados. The porch has a segmental outer arch with rendered reveals and wrought iron gates, with the date 1847 appearing in the gable apex.

To the south of the vestry stands the Pryce vault, featuring Regency-style railings with urns on corner and centre bars. Two stones commemorating Joseph Pryce of Gellyhir dated 1785 are built into the south wall.

The interior is notably plain and unusually free of Victorian pretensions. A fine oak south door, boarded and counterboarded with moulded face, provides entry. The space comprises the nave, the chancel three steps higher, and a side chapel in the base of the tower with a raised floor. The nave has a seven-bay roof with principals and small, curved high collar beams chamfered beneath, probably dating to the 19th century. The chancel has a similar three-bay roof with straight collars. Pews are arranged in four blocks, with a restored octagonal font at the west and a pine pulpit carved in Gothic style. A 19th-century chancel arch with timber decoration on the nave face separates the spaces. The chancel contains a recess for a wall tomb at the north, a simple reredos of three carved panels under a timber rail, and a plain Communion rail on decorative iron standards.

The tower chapel is very plain, with a rubble stone vault and flagged floor, entered by an irregular arch. It contains a rendered stone altar with slate slab, a small aumbry in the chapel wall to the right, and a corbelled window recess at the head. An east window and east doorway are blocked. In the south-west corner is the door to the stair vice leading to the belfry, which contains a triple oak bell frame with two bells hung to toll.

Monuments in the chancel include a classical memorial to Jane Mansel dated 1769, probably reconstructed, which is pedimented with a swag in the pediment and an unpainted shield below the sill. Plain 18th-century memorials are scattered through the nave, with one at the south featuring incised seraphs.

The modern art-glass west window displays an abstract design in grey with white surround; its sill incorporates panels of 19th-century plain coloured encaustic tiles.