Church of St Cenydd

Church of St Cenydd

A large church by Gower standards, comprising a nave, chancel and north porch, with a dominant tower on the north side. Farm buildings are attached to the south-west.

The church is built of local reddish or grey axe-dressed or rubble sandstone, roughly coursed in places, with a slight batter to the south of the chancel. Traces of old render or whitewash survive on the north side of the nave and chancel. The roofs are slated with exposed nave rafter ends and tile ridges. Nineteenth-century coped gables rise above the porch and to the east and west of the nave, all finished with stone finials. The east gable of the chancel has a verge overhang.

The east window is of three cusped lights in Decorated style, with a relieving arch in the masonry above the reticulated tracery and blind mouchettes. All other windows of the nave and chancel are pointed lancets in pairs; the pair to the south-east of the chancel has trefoil heads. The porch doorway is a plain equilateral pointed arch with a small glazed light above.

The tower rises three storeys with a longitudinal slated saddleback roof and nineteenth-century coped gables to east and west. To north and south, the tower has battlemented parapets on billet corbels. Flagpole corbels crown the west gable, and modern ventilation slits occupy the apex of each gable. Other openings are nineteenth-century restorations except those that are mediaeval. The belfry has small lancet openings to three sides. The middle storey contains narrow windows on three sides; the window to the west incorporates a mid-height widening in each side in the manner of a loophole, reopened during the 1882 restoration. The ground storey has a narrow window to the north and a small window in blocking masonry of a former round-headed archway to the east.

Entry is through the north porch, which has a pine roof, black and red quarry floor tiles, and side benches. The doorway into the nave features a single roll moulding and segmental rear arch, with a modern oak door.

The large nave contains a nineteenth-century pine roof in eight bays with scissors bracing and collars, wall-posts descending about one metre below wall head level and tall ashlars. Black and red quarry tile paving covers the floor. Late nineteenth-century pews of light construction fill the space. The west bay is separated by an oak screen dated 1924 to form a vestry.

Two steps rise to the chancel arch, which is pointed, low and slightly obtuse. The chancel axis inclines unusually slightly to the north. The nineteenth-century pine chancel roof spans five bays and is paved with red, cream and black encaustic tiles by Godwin of Lugwardine. Gateless altar rails of pine stand on braced standards. The choir stalls, prayer desk and pulpit in the nave are all pine with floral piercings. A small modern piscina occupies the south-east corner of the chancel, and a low corbel survives at the centre of the south wall.

The font, positioned near the north door, is square with scalloped underside and stands on a column with a hollow moulding at its foot. Mediaeval stencilling has been recorded on it.

Early carved monumental fragments are displayed in or near the vestry. A relocated effigy of a knight of the de la Mare family lies near the north door on a modern brick plinth. In the north chancel stands a Baroque monument to Richard Portney, Rector (died 1714), and Catherine his wife, erected by their daughter in 1725, featuring a broken pediment, console shelf and curtains opened over pilasters. Nave monuments include a large slate against the south wall to George and Elizabeth Beynon of Burry Green and others, Wesleyan Methodists (1824); monuments against the north wall commemorate Richard Gordon of Burry Green, gentleman (1720) and others, and John Gordon of Goytrebella, Swansea (1771) and Richard Gordon, High Sheriff in 1770 (1780).