Church of St. Cwyfan

Cadw's description

Location

In an isolated location on an island c. 150m off the coast at Porth Cwyfan and reached by a rough causeway at low tide; the churchyard has been raised and is enclosed by a retaining rubble wall.

History

The church was built in C12, the W part of the S wall is all that remains from this date, and the E and W walls are C14. In C16 a N aisle and arcade were added, the aisle removed early C19 and the bays of the arcade filled with masonry. The church was restored in 1893-4, under the guidance of Harold Hughes; and has been further restored and re-roofed in recent years.

Exterior

A simple Medieval church with chancel and nave structurally undivided. Built of rubble masonry with gritstone dressings. Modern slate roof with rendered copings and single opening gabled bellcote (C14 or C15) at W gable, with pointed opening. C15 doorway at the W end of the S wall; a depressed, pointed-arched opening in a square frame with moulded hoodmould. The doorway has casement moulded jambs and weathered trefoils in the spandrels. The W end of the S wall has a projecting string (probably C12), broken by the doorway, and a single square-headed light E of the door, terminating towards the centre of the S wall; at the E end is a cinquefoil-headed light in a square frame with moulded hoodmould. The N wall contains an arcade of 3 x 4-centred arches, now blocked with masonry and obscured; the central bay contains a re-set late C14 or early C15 window, a cinquefoil-headed light in a square frame. The E window is a mutilated pointed-arched C14 window with hoodmould, only some of the original tracery remains.

Interior

The interior of the church could not be inspected at the time of the survey but some details have been recorded in the RCAHM Inventory and Longueville Jones and Hughes articles, Archaeologia Cambrensis. In the early C19 the additional aisle to the N was removed; the dividing arcade of 3 x 4-centred arches remain embedded in the N wall of the present church. Perpendicular in style, the arches are of 2 orders, the inner plain, the outer hollow-chamfered; supported on octagonal piers and semi-octagonal responds with weathered caps and bosses. The arches are now blocked and the inner orders obscured. There are stone benches at the W end of the church and along a portion of the S wall. The roof is probably late C16, much repaired, with exposed arch-braced trusses. The church is said to contain a number of C18 memorials.

Reason for designation

Listed as a simple Medieval church of characteristic Anglesey type, retaining some early detail. The church is particularly notable for the isolation of its setting.