Church of St Barnabas

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in Rhandirmwyn some 300m W of the crossroads in the village centre.

History

Anglican parish church of 1877 by Mr Pearson of London, presumably John Loughborough Pearson, leading Victorian architect. Built for Lord Cawdor as the new parish church of Ystradffin, the parish created in 1875. The previous church at Ystradffin had been a perpetual curacy. It cost £3,000 and was consecrated in 1878 on Lord Cawdor's birthday, St Barnabas' Day.

Exterior

Anglican church, crazed rubble stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. Severe Early English Gothic style with lancet windows generally. Cruciform plan with additionally a S porch and a parallel-roofed NE vestry projecting from the N transept. Coped shouldered gables, cross finials to porch nave and chancel, moulded ashlar eaves . W end has 3-light window and hoodmould and ashlar bellcote with pointed arch, side piers, and impost and plinth mouldings carried around. Fish on weathervane. Nave has gabled S porch with chamfered pointed arch with hoodmould and plain capitals. Pointed inner S door. Two high-set lancets to right. Nave N is similar with 3 lancets, all with hoodmoulds. Transepts are similar with ashlar two-light end windows with roundels in heads and hoodmoulds. S transept and chancel linked by diagonal squint with pair of small lancets and sill band. Chancel has moulded sill band stepped under 3 E lancets, single lancet S and N. Short gabled vestry in angle between chancel and N transept with ashlar 2-light E window similar to those on transepts and sill band carried around to pointed door on N wall in angle to transept. In angle to chancel is curious 3-sided projection with ashlar roof, like a stair tower, but actually linking chancel N door with vestry E door.

Interior

Plastered walls, rafter roofs, with some arch bracing in chancel. Pointed chancel arch with plain imposts, plain transept arches. Nave has font for total immersion in SW corner. Fine whitewashed font, decagonal with moulded rim and moulded instepped underside, on squat cylinder surrounded by 10 attached columns. Pulpit has 5-sided front with Gothic panels. Chancel has tiled floor, 2 ornate tiles with Cawdor arms. Stalls with traceried blank panels. N pointed door into curved link to vestry. Altar rails on 4 wrought-iron Y-shaped uprights. Seat in S window embrasure. E window has detached columns with ringed shafts. Blank segmental-pointed recess on N wall echoes arch on S wall to squint.

Reason for designation

Included as a rare work in the region by a major Victorian architect, and as a simple but striking exercise in Early English Gothic.