Church of St Tydecho

Cadw's description

Location

The church stands in a raised oval churchyard, by the road leading NE through the Cwm Dyfi, NE of Dinas Mawddwy.

History

The site of the church in Llanymawddwy is probably of very early origin, for a C6 Latin inscribed memorial stone was found in the churchyard in 1746, now lost. The benefice is first recorded in 1250. Dr John Davies of Mallwyd was rector here from 1613 until his death in 1644. The present church was parochial until the C19. The plan is probably of C14 origin, restored in 1687, but the fabric was remodelled on the same plan in 1854 under the Tractarian Rev John Williams 'Ab-Ithel', (the architect unknown), incorporating earlier stonework in the west and side walls. The earlier building was illustrated by Ingleby for Thomas Pennant in 1794. A tower was also planned but not carried out. It was to have iron bars as a cheaper substitute for bells. Also the gable kneelers of the porch appear to be C17.

Exterior

Built of local stone, with a slate roof between coped gables, boulder foundations to the W wall. It consists of a nave with a S porch at the W end, and a narrower chancel, all in a simple Early English style. Three paired and 1 single trefoil-headed windows containing diamond pattern glazing, and 2 trefoil-headed lancets each side of the chancel, and a similar triple E window. Gabled bellcote rises from the W wall, and contains one bell of 1734. Brass benchmark 0755S. The porch has a gabled and coped face with rounded kneelers, and an opening with a chamfered outer 2-centred arch, and a similar inner doorway.

Interior

The nave consists of 4 roof bays, C19 braced collar beam trusses, recently reinforced with steel ties and ring bolts. Exposed rafters. The walls are plastered and whitened, and it has a flagged floor, the central aisle being quarry tiled. A plain chamfered chancel arch opens to the 2-bay chancel; roofed on 3 braced collar trusses.

Fittings: a fine Jacobean table altar, now in the vestry, with baluster legs and moulded stretchers. Pulpit, the present altar table, and Communion rails all of oak, and 1930s. Font, at the rear of the church, probably late C12-early C13 and of Grinshill stone, an octagonal bowl tapered downwards, with a flat raised girth band and above, large lobes or scallops around the rim. It is set on a domed granite base, perhaps a millstone.

Glass: W windows in both N and S walls, in a Pre-Raphaelite style, SS Luke and Cornelius, to Sir William Roberts of Bryn Hall, d.1899, and Jonathan and Samuel, to W P J Roberts, d.1893.

Monuments: on the S wall of the nave (a) white marble on grey, by T R Jones, Llanfair, to Rev Owen Hughes (Tysswyn), rector 1907-13, (b) Fossil marble, to Hugh Llewelyn Jones, d. in the 1939-45 war. In the SW angle of the porch, externally, RH (Richard Hughes) Rector 1737. Also two brass plates, 1 to Henry Edwards, Dean of Bangor, d.1884, who was born here, and to David Rees, bellringer, d.1924.

Reason for designation

Included as a good example of a small country church in a village setting reconstructed in an early Anglican Gothic revival style but incorporating early fabric within its walls.