Church of St. Senwyr

The Church of St. Senwyr is a building of group value, constructed primarily from local limestone rubble in various techniques – random on the nave, roughly coursed on the tower and chancel, and coursed and squared on the porch. Dressed quoins are present, especially on the chancel, which appear to be Victorian. Bath stone windows are incorporated, and the roofs are covered in Welsh slate. The church comprises a nave, chancel, south porch, a narrow west tower with gabled faces, and a lean-to boiler house situated in the north angle between the tower and nave.

A tall, gabled porch is centrally positioned on the south wall of the nave, featuring a four-centred Tudor arch with a dripmould and a coped gable topped with an apex cross and blind returns. This porch is flanked by a two-light and a three-light square-headed Perpendicular window. The north wall of the nave has a three-light window and a projection housing the rood stair. All these windows appear to be Victorian. The east and west gables are coped.

The chancel’s south side features a two-light window of the 17th century, followed by a priest’s door and a single, rectangular light window. An east window is a double tre-foiled lancet, and the north wall has a single light window. The east gable is coped with a cross, and the roofline matches that of the nave.

A three-stage, pointed arch tower was added over the west end, with a ground-level archway, small windows to the ringing chamber, and louvred openings to each face of the bell-chamber. The tower is topped with a cross-gabled roof and a weathervane.

Inside, the church is plastered and painted, exposing the Victorian ashlar window dressings. A blocked west window sits above a small tower arch, predating the tower’s construction, and a blocked north door is also present. A rood stair has both lower and upper doors. The church boasts a very fine, four-bay 15th-century timber arch-braced collar-beam roof, incorporating three tiers of curved windbraces. A longitudinal collar-purlin extends from the chancel arch to the west wall, connecting with each collar. A likely 14th-century tub font is also present. Most furnishings are Victorian, including a splayed chancel arch, a close-boarded chancel roof, but the pulpit, choir stalls (dating to 1910), and reredos (designed in 1926 by F E Howard) are later additions. The main door bears a date of 1674. A remarkably fine and complete late 14th-century effigy of an armoured knight is situated in the chancel, set upon a Victorian tiled floor. Several good 18th and early 19th-century wall monuments are located in the nave.