Parish Church of St Tydfil

The Parish Church of St Tydfil is a building dating from the 19th century, constructed of limestone rubble with Welsh slate roofs. The church comprises a chancel, a central tower, a nave, a south porch, and a vestry. The windows are 19th-century replacements with sandstone dressings. The east end of the chancel has a three-light window with trefoil heads that step up centrally, beneath a hoodmould. A single lancet window with a trefoil head is set into the south elevation of the chancel. The central tower is broad, featuring a corbel table above, and has paired belfry louvres to the north and south with narrow slot openings directly beneath. An inset stone on the south side displays chevron, nail head, birds, and arabesque detailing. The gabled south porch has a round-headed outer doorway, flanked by stone benches, and a modern timber collar roof. The west end of the nave is illuminated by stained glass, round-headed windows. A narrow staircase tower, with a conical stone slab roof and two staggered square-headed stairlights with a single boarded door beneath, adjoins the central tower on the east side. A tall stone chimney is also a feature of the stair tower. The north face of the vestry contains a boarded priests door with a single, square-headed light under a square label to the right. The east face of the vestry has a two-light window under a square label.

The church’s plan is notable for its crossing tower. The chancel and sanctuary arches are not aligned; the tower/chancel arch is a broad, obtuse, two-centred arch without mouldings, potentially of 12th-century origin, while the chancel/sanctuary arch is a narrower, more pointed two-centred arch, similarly unadorned. A squint is visible in the east wall. At the east end, a piscina is set into a recess in the south wall, featuring a Romanesque cushion capital. The nave and sanctuary roof is of 19th-century collar-purlin construction, supported by substantial stone corbels; the chancel roof is flat and boarded. Original features include 19th-century choir stalls and a pulpit. The north wall of the nave contains a number of memorials to members of the Carne family. These include a memorial to Sarah Jane, who died in 1861, the wife of R.C. Nicholl Carne of Nash Manor, who donated the Village School to the west of the church, and a memorial to John Carne, Lord of the Manor, who died in 1762. A Norman font, situated near the south door, rests on a square base with broach stops.