Church of St Cadoc (St Cattwg)

Church of St Cadoc (St Cattwg)

This is a Gothic parish church comprising a chancel, nave, south porch, west tower and chapel. It is built in coursed local rubble stone with a slated roof to the nave and chancel, which features coped parapets and a Celtic wheelcross finial at the east end.

The west tower is substantial and squat, with a corbel table below a crenellated parapet. Each face of the belfry is lit by a broadheaded, square, louvered two-light window with a hoodmould over and square labels. A heavily moulded stringcourse runs at the base of the tower and is repeated approximately halfway up. Below this stringcourse is a lancet stair window on the south face. The west doorway has an acutely pointed arch with a doorhead consisting of two simple dressed stones of possibly 16th-century date. Above the west door is a further two-light diamond leaded mullion window with a hoodmould, which appears contemporary with the doorway beneath. This window has depressed arch-headed lights and square-headed labels.

On the south elevation, the chancel is lit by a single lancet window with a cusped head of 19th-century date. An early 15th-century doorway remains with a simple dressed sandstone surround and plain chamfer. The nave is lit by a pair of 19th-century two-light windows with trefoiled heads beneath ogee arches surmounted by a quatrefoil. Between these windows lies the acutely pointed 19th-century south porch.

The east elevation of the chancel has a three-light window with ogee tracery crowned by a quatrefoil. Beneath the east window is an external doorway giving access to the Hensol vault. The east wall of the chancel has clasping buttresses of two stages with copings.

On the north side, the chancel is unlit, being flanked by a small former private chapel with one single-light lancet with an ogee trefoiled head beneath two mouchettes. The north elevation of the nave is lit by a pair of lancets: one with two trefoiled lights beneath an ogee arch surmounted by a quatrefoil, and the other with a single trefoil-headed light beneath an ogee arch.

Interior

The church is aisleless. The principal surviving early feature is the chancel arch of pointed form, springing from a compound pier comprising three closely arranged demi-shafts with embattled capitals incorporating four-leaf decoration of 14th-century date. To the north of the chancel arch is a doorway of pointed form leading to the vestry. Above this is another small pointed doorway accessed via a spiral staircase between the nave and vestry, formerly giving access to a rood-loft.

The chancel has a wind-braced roof carried on four stone corbels with elaborate carved interlocking, foliate motifs. These variously depict vines with grapes, oak leaves with acorns, and exuberant scrolling foliage. The nave is similarly constructed with principal rafters springing from eight stone corbels with comparable luxuriant detailing.

The south doorway to the porch has a blunt pointed arch with moulding. The font is of typical 14th-century design: octagonal in shape, decorated with a sunken quatrefoil with alternating plain faces, supported on a plain hexagonal base.

The pulpit dates from 1893 and has a heavy, simply moulded cornice with sunken panels beneath, horizontally divided into three unequal sections. The upper panel has two ogee arches, the central panel is plain, and below are two quatrefoils in circles. The pulpit is carried on a heavily moulded stone base and reached by five stone steps.

The tower is separated from the nave by a pointed arch with an inner arch having a flat soffit merging into the side walls below the point of springing. The tower screen is square-framed of three bays, fitted to the head of the arch with flat stylised tracery lights featuring trefoils and cinquefoils.

The lancet window adjoining the pulpit on the north side of the nave contains the only remaining stained glass window in the church, depicting Ruth and Mary Magdalene. It was erected in 1884 to a design by W.F. Dixon of London, as a memorial to Mary Anne, the wife of James Harvey Insole of Llandaff and Ty Fry.