Church of St John, Llangwm Isaf

The Church of St John is a parish church, dating from the 19th century, likely incorporating earlier medieval features. The church is constructed of purple rubble stone with dressings in pale stone and purple sandstone, topped with imitation stone tiles. It consists of a single chamber, with a west porch and a bellcote situated on the ridge between the nave and chancel. The gables are coped and the east gable features cross finials, while the bellcote has a single cusped opening for one bell.

The west front incorporates pale stone flush quoins, two small, eroded, cusped lancet windows, and an apex quatrefoil. A large porch, with a coped gable, similar quoins, and a finely moulded pointed entry with a hoodmould and stone voussoirs, provides access. This moulding, though seemingly 19th century, replicates the style of late medieval mouldings found at Llansoy. The porch roof is supported by arch-braced collar-trusses, and it features a pointed, chamfered west doorway with a plank door.

On the south side, a two-step buttress separates the nave and chancel. The nave has a Perpendicular-style, flat-headed, three-light window with a hoodmould, while the chancel has a narrow, Tudor-arched door and a single cusped lancet. The east end is accentuated by a large, pointed, Perpendicular-style, three-light window with panel tracery in the head, a hoodmould, and a quatrefoil window in the gable, all featuring pale flush angle quoins. The north wall has a battered base, possibly of medieval origin, with two eroding, purple stone, flat-headed windows similar to those on the south side - one three-light and one two-light – accompanied by a buttress and a lancet window to the chancel.

Internally, the exposed rubble stone walls are complemented by tooled red sandstone surrounds to the openings and cambered rear arches. The nave has a four-bay roof with arch-braced collar-trusses. A continuously moulded pointed chancel arch in pale stone demarcates the nave and chancel. A 19th-century brass hanging corona is positioned above the arch. The chancel, accessed by one step, has a similar three-bay roof, incorporating windbracing, and a further two steps lead up to the sanctuary. The sanctuary railing is supported by four brass standards, and there are stalls on the south side, along with two benches (one featuring pierced cinquefoils) and a matching litany desk on the north side. The church also contains 19th-century pews, five originally six, oil lamps on timber standards, a stone and concrete curved pulpit designed and crafted by W.G. Stephens, a churchwarden, in 1965, a high Victorian, heavy, octagonal ashlar font with a deep bowl, moulded detailing beneath, a squat shaft, and a moulded base.