Church of St Fflewyn

Cadw's description

Location

In an isolated rural location close by the farmstead at Fferam-y-Llan and reached by the farmtrack leading W of a country road S of Mynydd Mechell.

History

Early documentary references show that there was a church on this site at least as early as C13; recorded in the Norwich Taxation of 1254. The present church is therefore probably built upon Medieval foundations, though the current building contains no dateable features earlier than late C18 and was extensively restored in the early 1930s.

Exterior

Simple rural church with continuous nave and chancel; gabled SW porch, NW vestry and W gable bellcote. Built of rubble masonry with widely slobbered mortar, on plinth at W end; slate roof. N and S walls with paired rectangular leaded lights; the SE window looks to have been inserted in a blocked doorway. E window is a round-headed arched window of 2 leaded lights. The porch has a round-headed arched entrance; inner door is boarded with broad crude hinges. There is a single leaded light in the N wall of the vestry.

Interior

Nave and chancel in one with roof of 6 bays, exposed timbers and collared trusses. The chancel has a simple squared moulded rail on stick balusters; pulpit and pews with chamfered angles. At the W end of the nave is a C14 or C15 plain 9-sided font.
The N and S walls have C18 slate memorial plaques; N wall has one to Richard, son of Richard Williams d1774, and one to Arabella, wife of John Dreyhurst d1775, also Richard Williams d1796 and also Jane, his wife d1779. The S wall to Mary Vaughan, wife of Abraham Williams d1767 also Richard, son of John Broadhead d1781.
Reset into the sill of the E window is a fragment of a gravestone with floriation and inscription, partly illegible, beginning: HIC JACET MADOCUS ... ; Medieval, not earlier than 1300.

Reason for designation

Included as a simple rural church built on Medieval foundations and retaining the vernacular character of a pre gothic revival church.