Church of St David, Bettws

Church of St David, Bettws

The Church of St David at Bettws is a medieval parish church with later additions. It consists of a nave surmounted by a west bellcote, a south porch, a slightly lower and narrower chancel, and nineteenth-century north aisle and north-east vestry.

The medieval portions—nave, chancel and south porch—are built of rubble with ashlar dressings. The bellcote is wholly of ashlar. The nineteenth-century additions are of rockfaced sandstone with ashlar dressings. The roof is clay tiled with apex crosses.

The most distinctive feature is the exceptional square west bellcote, positioned at the west end of the nave. It stands on a shallow stone base supported on the west by corbels. The bellcote has square-headed openings on the north, east and south sides, with stone louvres facing west. Gargoyles sit on each upper corner, and a corbelled base supports a pyramidal roof surmounted by a fish weathervane. It reputedly houses two bells dated 1891. The west wall is plain, with a north-west aisle window of two lights nearby.

The south porch features a pointed arched doorway with double chamfer and a niche above. It has prominent quoins, kneelers and saddle-back coping. Weather coursing from an earlier roof is visible on the stonework. Inside the porch is one original roof truss. Stone benches bear marks reportedly made by sharpening weapons. The doorway is planked with metal fittings, and a niche stands to the right.

On the south-west nave is a small two-cusped light square-headed window dated 1893, with a rectangular eaves light above. To its left is a small wall monument with a fleur-de-lys motif and illegible inscription. The south-east nave has one window of four arched lights and one of two square-headed lights under square hood moulds. A battered plinth runs along the base.

The chancel has a north priest's door, a single-light south-east window, and a three-light east window with Perpendicular tracery. It retains its medieval roof trusses across three bays. A thirteenth-century piscina is set in the south wall of the sanctuary, and a recess in the north wall is possibly an aumbry. The remains of the demolished rood loft survive as a stump below the south window.

The nave comprises five bays with an arch-braced roof. Three of the original trusses survive, featuring carved wooden bosses and corbels depicting the Instruments of the Passion. A tall segmental pointed west tower arch opens into the nave.

An unusual stone holy water stoup near the door is a four-sided basin set on four detached shafts, which were added in 1893.

The nineteenth-century north aisle has three bays of pointed moulded arches defined by bands of voussoirs, half-round shafts and narrow foliage capitals. A wide moulded pointed chancel arch with face stops spans the full width of the chancel, dating from the restoration period. The north aisle and vestry have single-light windows with cusped heads, hood moulds and face stops. A circular quatrefoil east window in the north aisle clears a flat vestry roof, which is disguised by a deep cornice and false gable at the east with an arched entrance door beneath.

The church contains a Norman tub font and base. An exceptionally unusual painted wooden monument commemorates John Bradford (1690–1780), who lived at Y Pandy or Bradford Cottages near Plas-y-Betws. Bradford was a weaver, fuller and dyer who became a prominent figure in the Glamorgan Literary Renaissance of the eighteenth century, served as president of the Gorsedd of Bards in 1760, and was a teacher of Iolo Morgannwg. He was buried in the churchyard near the south side of the church, though the grave is no longer identifiable. A widow's hatchment from the same family, depicting three stags, hangs in the vestry.

The church contains numerous eighteenth-century and later wall monuments, including those to well-known local families such as the Trahernes and to Rees Price (died 1723), a Calvinistic preacher and father of Richard Price of Tynton.