Church of SS Ilid and Curig

Church of SS Ilid and Curig

A small Tudor-Gothic church comprising a nave with south porch, a lower and narrower chancel, and a west tower. The building is constructed of rubble stone with larger quoins and Sutton stone dressings, with a concrete tile roof behind coped gables. The walls are battered at the base.

The nave features, to the left of the porch, a small blocked window and a two-light window with hood. To the right of the porch is a similar two-light window, with a smaller two-light window placed higher to the right to light the rood. The porch is positioned left of centre and has a two-centred arch with continuous moulding.

The chancel's south wall contains a two-light window with sunk spandrels and hood mould, to the right of which is a segmental-pointed doorway with continuous moulding. The east window has three stepped lights with sunk spandrels similar to the south window, and a hood mould with sunk label stops. Both chancel windows possibly date to the 17th century. The nave has a shallow outshut projection at the east end of the north wall, which housed the former rood stair. The north wall of the nave contains a single 19th-century two-light window and a projecting brick boiler room at the west end.

The tower has mouldings similar to those of the chancel and may therefore also date to the 17th century. It comprises three stages with single-light segmental-headed windows to the lower stages in the south wall only, both with sunk spandrels. At the bell stage, each face has two-light windows with sunk spandrels and hood moulds; the south and east faces have sunk label stops. Tall battlements project on a moulded corbel table and have moulded copings.

Interior

The nave contains a 19th-century roof of closely-spaced scissor-brace trusses with boarding behind. Two high-level corbels on the nave's west wall possibly derive from an earlier roof. A simple pointed and plastered tower arch is matched by a narrow and crudely worked pointed chancel arch. The north wall features a round-headed doorway to the rood loft. The chancel has a 19th-century roof of closely-spaced arched-brace trusses. The stepped chancel floor has decorative tiles around the altar. On the north side of the chancel is a chamfered recess. On the south side is a recess with a cusped ogee head adjacent to a pillar piscina with a moulded top, though the shaft and base are 19th-century dressed work. The nave's south wall contains a stoup reset in a cusped arched recess.

The font is the earliest surviving feature, probably dating to the 13th century. It has a round bowl with a frieze of linked trefoils in low relief, a modern stem, and the original round base. The modest wooden pulpit is polygonal with open arcading. The choir stalls have 19th-century moulded ends. The late 19th-century communion rail has iron scroll brackets and a wooden hand-rail. The east window contains an unsigned late 19th-century crucifixion. The nave's north window holds stained glass figures of Saints Catherine and John the Baptist.

Several wall tablets are present. Above the chancel arch is a late 19th-century debased classical tablet to David Griffiths (died 1892). To the right of the chancel arch is a simple tablet with elliptical inscription panel commemorating David Davies (died 1811) and members of his family. The nave's south wall has a coloured tablet to Morgan Morgan (died 1841) and his wife. Simpler late 19th and early 20th-century tablets are on the north wall.