Church of Saint Peter

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in Bryngwyn village, on W side of lane some 500m N of junction with old A40.

History

Anglican parish church C13 origins much rebuilt in C15. The thin W tower is clearly added to an existing nave, presumably in late C15. Repaired 1844 for £196, N aisle and vestry added and chancel arch inserted 1871 to designs by John Prichard, for £503. Reredos of 1923 by Creed & Heal, architects. A church at Bryngwyn is recorded by Gerald of Wales in 1180 as having been built by Aeddan Gwaethfoed, lord of Clytha. The Rev. William Crawley was rector for 62 years, 1834-96, and was responsible for the alterations.

Exterior

Parish church, rubble stone with slate roofs, small silvery slates. W tower, nave, chancel, S porch and N aisle.
Plain embattled tower with moulded courses over ground floor and under battlements, pointed W door and small pointed cusped C19 single bell-lights. Nave and chancel have C19 coping and cross finials.
Nave S has small post-medieval 2-light flush chamfered window set high to left. Moulded segmental pointed late medieval S doorway with double studded plank doors. Large timber porch on low stone walls, with cusped bargeboards, some old timbers including E side post with attached shaft (copied on W) under arch-braced collar truss. Renewed wind-bracing. Late medieval large flat-headed 3-light window to right with cusped tracery and then superimposed rood lights, lower red stone 2-light with flat-head and ogee tracery, upper plain post-medieval 2-light. Large stepped buttress at nave SE.
Chancel has battered wall base, S wall 2-light to left with cusped heads, narrow moulded Tudor-arched door with pyramid stops, and big 2-light to right, square headed with cusped lights. E end C19 Perp style pointed window with panel tracery. Chancel N has square headed Perp cusped single light.
N aisle of 1871 in rock-faced grey and purple stone with angle and centre buttresses, paired lancet windows, one each end, 2 and door on N side, in purple stone, with stone voussoirs.

Interior

Whitewashed walls, W end has original pointed W door, now into tower, chamfered surround and cambered rear arch. Above, a red sandstone pointed door to tower ringing floor, pyramid stops to jambs.
Nave has late C19 boarded roof in 4 x 4 large panels, and window rear arches are C19 renewed. Recess with Tudor-arched head for large S window. C19 2-bay N arcade in Bath stone, 2-chamfer round arches on round column. To N is original rood-stair doorway, segmental-pointed chamfered, and former outside rood projection is still intact, but passage has been cut through to vestry at N end of aisle, leaving rood stairs intact only above head height. C19 Bath stone chancel arch continuously chamfered. Chancel 6x4 panel roof is partly late medieval with original moulded wall-plate and some original moulded ribs. Trefoil-headed piscina on S wall. Font with hexagonal bowl with chamfer band over deep splay, on shaft with ogee relief tracery and shields. Malt-shovel panels on base. Pitch pine C19 5-sided pulpit on bracketed base, and pitch pine bench pews. Late C17 or early C18 turned oak altar rails. Limed oak large carved reredos of 1923, in late Gothic style favoured by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, with figures of SS Peter and David on opening wings flanking centre group of the Crucifixion with SS Mary and John, each figure in traceried niche, the centre Crucifix taller. Pitch pine screen in aisle to N vestry, Gothic panels with column shafts.
Monuments: Nave N plain early C19 plaque to William Morgan d1778, by Tyley of Bristol. Vestry small Baroque monument with curved pediment and winged cherub head, to Frances Frampton d 1665. In chancel C19 plaque to Rev. Robert Frampton, d 1685. Rustic monument to Elizabeth Watkins d 1806, broad plaque with 2 arched pieces over cornice, with pair of winged cherub heads leaning towards each other. Rustic monument to William Tyler, d 1695 with scrolls and rope-mould around plaque. S wall plaque to Elizabeth Morgan of The Hill, Clytha d 1812.

Reason for designation

Graded II* as a well-preserved medieval parish church retaining early details including porch, tower, tracery and chancel roof. Unusually well-recorded history.