St Cadoc's Parish Church

St Cadoc's Parish Church

St Cadoc's is a Grade I listed parish church constructed of coursed limestone rubble with evidence of earlier lime-coat. The building comprises a nave, chancel, south aisle, tower, and Raglan Chapel, with the ridge of the chancel and nave continuous with that of the Raglan Chapel. The roof plan is a double pile roof throughout.

The chancel, nave and south aisle all possess 15th-century cradle roofs. The Raglan Chapel has a similar cradle roof, plastered beneath the ribs with decorative bosses. The tower is square, broad and low with an embattled parapet resting on a small corbel table.

The east window is a 19th-century three-light window with intersecting tracery to the head. The three-light east window of the Raglan Chapel is 14th-century with cusped head and intersecting tracery to the head. There are four other 14th-century two-light windows with cusp heads and quatrefoils in the tracery to the head. At high level on the north elevation of the nave are two two-light trefoil-headed windows with irregular shaped quatrefoils to the head, with a corresponding pair of cinquefoil windows at the east end beneath which is a small single trefoil-headed lancet. A small timber priests' door with two-centred arch and plain chamfer is set between the first and second windows running east to west along the south elevation. Between the second and third windows is a small, high-level pair of cusp-headed lancets lighting a rood loft behind, matched on the north face. The north elevation of the chancel contains a two-light window similar to those on the south side of the nave but smaller, and a large square-headed 15th-century five-light window beneath a depressed tracery arch. Each light is cinquefoil-headed beneath a depressed arch with circular tracery lights enclosed within pointed arches. The central section contains four quatrefoils set in roundels above with diamond intersection, with the mullions continued straight through the head and quatrefoils occupying the shapes resulting from this tracery arrangement.

The tower's north elevation has a single window with ogee head at low level. The south elevation displays a pair of round-headed windows at high level with a single trefoil-headed lancet beneath. The west elevation has a pair of 19th-century ogee-headed windows and a pointed west doorway with double plain chamfer under a relieving arch.

The south porch is of early Perpendicular date, with a ridged roof set beneath the eaves of the chapel. Two tombstones in very poor condition are set in the east elevation. The inner doorway is Early English with round mouldings springing from the walls, the outer roll dying into the masonry. The inner doorway is complexly moulded with two 13th-century capitals lacking shafts. Above the inner doorway is a niche. The outer doorway has a hoodmould with square label stops bearing blank shields. The interior of the porch has an open ribbed roof with seven pairs of principals and benches to either side.

The west end of the Raglan Chapel has a Perpendicular-style three-light cinquefoil window with four smaller trefoil-headed lights to the head under a hollow chamfered hoodmould with square label stops.

The wide chancel arch is Transitional Norman with simple chamfer, supported on large impost blocks decorated with Romanesque dogtooth design. The arcade between the chancel and Raglan Chapel comprises three bays with octagonal piers and flared capitals of Decorated date, similar to those of the nave but with wider span. The arcade between the nave and Raglan Chapel has four sharply pointed 14th-century arches springing from square, un-moulded pillars with square capitals crudely decorated at each corner. The tower opens to the nave with a plain pointed arch upon corbels.

The Raglan Chapel is separated from the south aisle by a 15th-century Perpendicular screen believed to have been part of the original rood screen. Remains of the 15th-century rood screen are now placed behind the altar beneath the east window. The door and staircase to the rood loft remain in the north wall, and the corbels which originally supported the screen either side of the chancel survive.

The font is Norman with crude foliate decoration. A 12th-century stoop with roll moulding is adjacent to the south door. A fresco on the south wall shows the text of the Apostles' Creed. Other frescoes have been documented on the south aisles, revealed during 19th-century restoration but since covered.