St Machreth's Church

Cadw's description

Location

Situated on raised ground in the centre of the village; in its own walled churchyard.

History

Medieval site on which a new church was constructed in the early C19 under the patronage of Sir Robert Williames Vaughan of Nannau, Bart.; faculty granted 10th March 1820. All save the tower was again rebuilt in 1872 in plain Early English style to the designs of Benjamin Ferrey, architect and at cost of ú1,300.

Exterior

Rubble construction, snecked to nave and chancel and with sandstone dressings. Medium-pitched slate roofs with plain eaves cornice, ridge tiles and gable crosses. Plain gabled Sporch with flush flanking butresses; 4-centred-arched entrance, stopped-chamfered and with inner arch; pointed-arched inner entrance with boarded double doors. To the R of the porch, 2 arched plate tracery windows with oculi; stepped buttresses in between. To the R, a plain chamfered lancet. Further buttress at intersection of nave with chancel. Chancel stepped-down and set back slightly. 2 lancets as before though with inner roll moulding. Stepped buttress, flush with E end. 3 light E window with returned labels to arched lights; foliate stops. 3 plate windows and one lancet as before to nave N side and one further lancet to chancel. Gabled vestry with plain pointed-arched window to N gable. Extruded porch between chancel and nave with plain arched entrance and recessed boarded door. Early C19 rubble W tower with dressed stone spire; in rustic Romanesque style. Round-arched entrance with label and modern boarded door and tympanum; Similar 2-light window above with later brick infill and further arched windows to upper floor, again reduced. Stepped and parapeted access to first-floor boarded entrance on N side. The tower has plain string courses and shaved sides. Octagonal spire with string courses and small arched and canopied bell vents; decorative iron weather-vane.

Interior

Aisless 4-bay nave with collar-truss roof carried onplain corbels. Good late C19 figurative stained glass to most nave windows; plain Victorian pine pews. Gothic style pulpit in alabaster, in memory of John Vaughan of Nannau, d. 1900; Decoratedtracery panels and relief carving of Christ and the apostles. Several marble wall monuments, all repositioned from both the Medieval and the early C19 church. Chief of these is a large white marble monument to Anne Nanney of Nannau, d. 1729, which occupies much of the W wall. Draped curtain with putti bearing a life-sized bust of the deceased in a roundel. Classical wall monuments to Rice Jones, 1801, and Jonnet and Griffith Price, 1788 and 1804. Plain font with octagonal base and cylindrical top; blind trefoils and oculi. Polychromed tiled floor to chancel.

Large chancel arch with corbelled inner arch; compartmented waggon roof. Plain choir stalls with Gothic tracery panelled fronts. Good figurative E window glass in memory of James Vaughan of Nannau (1861 and presumably therefore from the earlier church) and further, similar glass in the N and S chancel windows. C19 organ with polychromed pipes.

Reason for designation

Included for its monuments associated with the Nannau estate, and early C19 tower.