Church of St Tyfaelog

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in a grassy churchyard which slopes down to E, set back from the main thoroughfare; surrounding wall is of stone with gate-pier entrances and walled steps down at W and SW.

History

Built 1862-3 by Charles Buckeridge for the Revd. Gilbert Harries, Rector of Gelligaer. Interior re-painted: originally the piers were of green Bridgend stone with buff Bathstone caps with walls banded in red and white brick. Known as the Cathedral of the Valley; in Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Exterior

Small church in Early English Gothic Revival style. Built of snecked rock-faced sandstone with red brick dressings and banding with very deep roof of Welsh slate with overhanging eaves swept down low over the aisles, metal cruciform finials. Plan of nave with aisles each side, steeply gabled small W porch and chancel with curved apse. Windows are mostly lancets with moulded brick hoods. At W triple lancets are partly masked by the ridge of the porch and flanked by buttresses with offsets; at apex is a small circular light with pierced tracery; to each side is a small lancet at the end of each aisle. Steeply gabled porch has pointed archway of 2 orders and double W door with decorative hinges, quatrefoil above. 3 sets of paired windows to side aisle walls with lancet at E; buttresses at junction with chancel. Chancel roof, conical over apse, is slightly stepped down; apse to E has triple lancets spaced round the curve close under eaves; ground here is lower so the building is higher accommodating 5 rows of banding.

Interior

Polychrome interior of contrasting banded brick, painted render, brick and stone. Boarded roof, more decorative and cusped to chancel; some fittings for former gas chandeliers. Part parquet floor reputedly made from railway sleepers. Pointed- arched 3 bay aisle arcades, the arches two-ordered of contrasting red brick and white painted stone, the piers circular with moulded caps, clustered at ends. Near W door to S is a deep immersion baptismal pool of stone, brick and tile, with an inset cross in the tiled floor; also a large square-bowled font. Stone pulpit with open canopywork at NE of nave, c1863. War memorial on N wall. No chancel screen and the chancel arch is represented by short piers rising from high set corbels. Chancel is richly furnished with decorative crested wood panelling and choir stalls with poppy heads, a refurbishment dating to around the time of the first World War. Large organ of 1926 is set back within a 2-bay S choir arcade. In the sanctuary the altar incorporates a carved frieze of the Last Supper; to rear are niches with figures of saints under tall crocketed pinnacles; above the 3 pointed-arched windows with stained glass c1917 (possibly by R.J. Newberry, as also in nave) is a painted inscription; richly carved 2-bay piscina in S wall. At W end, the porch has 3-ordered pointed inner arches.

Reason for designation

Listed as a well-preserved High Victorian church in the Rhymney Valley, with an exceptional polychrome interior.