St Elidyr's Lychgate

Cadw's description

Exterior

At the W entrance to St Elidyr's churchyard.

Lychgate designed by Christopher Hatton Turnor in memory of John Frederick Vaughan, second Earl Cawdor, 1817-1898. Turnor was a young relative of the wife of the third Earl, and briefly practiced architecture before turning to a career of agricultural reform.

An inscription commemorates the late Earl on a lead scroll on the out-facing lintel. Earl Cawdor's arms are also displayed on lead panels on the stone piers.

The gateway is between two sandstone piers. The stone piers are linked by curved ramps to the churchyard wall. There are two oak frames, one at the front of the gateway and the other at the rear, braced to each other. All the timber is kept clear of the ground. At the head of the frames each has a shaped oak lintel, the soffits of which are segmentally curved. Between the braces are housed the gateposts, so the gates are central in the depth of the gateway. Simple braced and slatted gates opening outwards..

Resting on the piers and lintels is a hipped roof of small slates, with a deep overhang at the eaves. Lead guttering attached to the extremities of the projecting beams ~n wrought-iron brackets. The lead finials, ridge cover, uprights and ridge-crests are designed in Art Nouveau forms. The crests (marked 'W Dodds') are in eight similar pieces each with a central motif of the Galley of Lorne (from the Cawdor Arms).

The design gives an impression of being somewhat miniaturised, with low headroom and a deep shadow beneath the overhanging roof, and the lead armorial panels resembling high-level windows.

Listed as a fine design much influenced by Arts and Crafts ideas, with leadwork in Art Nouveau forms: probably the finest lychgate in SW Wales.

Reference: Information from Rev. J H Richards