Church of SS Julius and Aaron

The Church of St Julius and Aaron is a building dating from the 18th century, built of random Old Red Sandstone with red brick dressings and a pantiled roof. It comprises a nave with two aisles, a chancel, a flanking south chapel and a north sacristy.

The tall, three-bay nave features a double bellcote on its eastern gable and lean-to aisles. It has three pointed windows on both the south and north sides, each with brick surrounds featuring recessed arches, flush hoods, projecting imposts, and concrete sills. The west front is buttressed, with toothed stonework on the north and south walls. This stonework suggests an original plan for a longer building. Two sets of paired lancets are positioned on either side of the central buttress, with similar windows in the west walls of the aisles, which are divided by lower buttresses. A single-storey entrance porch has been added to the north side. A blocked doorway is located on the south side, with boarded doors, and a pointed doorway is on the south wall.

The high, three-bay chancel has three lancet windows set high in its tall east gable, facing St Julians Avenue. It has a projecting gable canopy with a sculpture of Christ on a cross. Below the main windows is a small round-headed window, and a three-centred arched central doorway to the ground floor, flanked by flat-headed, square-headed boarded openings. The roofline sweeps down over the added south chapel. A lower sacristy was added to the north, set back and with a lean-to roof. It has three high-level round-arched chancel windows and a square stack to the left. A round window is in the east wall of the north aisle. Evidence of an earlier structure is visible in the position of the sacristy, including keying for a roofline, a blocked door from the north aisle, and the continuation of the north aisle’s stonework in the sacristy’s exterior wall. A chapel and Ty Williams were added to the south in 2012, featuring two windows and a door with steps from St Julians Avenue.

Inside the nave, wide, aisled bays are divided by tall concrete piers with square bases and octagonal capitals, supporting wide, four-centred red brick arches. The eastern end of the nave is narrower to accommodate openings intended for a rood loft, which was never installed. The chancel has a high, broad concrete arch on rectangular brick imposts with dog tooth capitals. The north wall has three high-level lancets, with four-centred arches below, open to the sacristy, which is divided by a dog tooth string course. The south wall has two eastern arches blocked, while the west arch has been opened to the added south chapel.

The roof throughout is high and barn-like, with tie beams and wind braces. A full-height reredos in gothic style fills the eastern end; it was originally located in Capel-y-ffin and relocated in 1932, along with the altar and candlesticks. The south chapel, added in 2012, has a slate floor and open arches to the south aisle and chancel. The south aisle has three windows, a door at the chapel end, and two low-level blind openings. A font of Caldey Island black marble stands on five circular shafts. The north aisle also has three windows and a door at the west end. The nave contains an organ at the west end and a pulpit constructed from stone and brick, dating from the 1980s reordering.