Church of St Mary

Location

In a raised churchyard on the N side of the minor road leading NW from the centre of Bryncroes village to the B 4413.

History

The C16 church was extensively restored in 1906 by architect Harold Hughes who added a porch and a vestry. C16 trusses were patched and re-used in the nave roof.

Exterior

Small church; rectangular plan with nave and chancel under one roof. Granite blocks, uncoursed, with very big stone quoins. Slate roof, stone gable coping with kneelers. W front has small bellcote with stone cross. Below, neo-Romanesque porch has semi-circular arch with stone voussoirs. Inner porch has plain boarded roof, small round-headed lights to left and right and C16 round-arched doorway to nave. Double-doors are decorated with ogee banded moulding; wrought-iron strap hinges, iron stirrup handle with moulded backplate. S Elevation has six small round-headed lights; plain stone dressings with chamfered sills, small diamond-shaped panes. N Elevation has five similar windows. Attached to NW nave is a small lean-to vestry with round-headed windows in N and W walls and a round-headed external doorway to E. The E gable has round-headed centre light flanked by two smaller ones; plain bargeboard.

Interior

Very unusual Arts and Crafts neo-Romanesque interior. Walls inlaid with numerous flat stone pieces like a mosaic, creating an unusual grotto-like effect. Six-and-a-half bays, comprising 5 re-used C16 collar trusses, plus a newer arch-braced truss at E end and another simple unbraced collar truss to W. The C16 trusses have struts above the collar, with multifoil cusping. Purlins are supported by C20 cusped wind-braces, with C20 ashlar pieces to walls. Windows have large semi-circular stone voussoirs and are set in deep, splayed recesses; chamfered sills. Side walls have boarded dado. Close-boarded pews with shaped ends. Low red sandstone wall with moulded cap separates nave from chancel and runs into the base of the pulpit. Pulpit in Arts and Crafts Gothic style; red sandstone, square with canted angles, upper panels decorated with curvilinear blind tracery. Small red-sandstone piscina set into S chancel wall. C20 oak lectern, cylindrical shaft and moulded octagonal base. Font formed by large rectangular block of roughly worked stone, set on battered rectangular stone base. Moulded oak communion rail with thin iron supports and decorated wrought-iron panels. Stained glass; E Window (early C20) crucifixion scene in memory of Claude Henry Lloyd Edwards of Nanhoron. Framed and painted wooden memorial boards on N chancel wall to (1) Richard Trygarn (gent), died 1666 and (2) Gruffyth Trygarn, died 1687, (who married the daughter of Richard Edwards of Nanhoron).

Reason for designation

Listed as a late medieval church especially notable for the unusual character of its early C20 neo-Romanesque restoration, including an interior of exceptional quality.