Church of St Celynin

Cadw's description

Location

At the S end of the village, in a churchyard set back from the main road just N of its junction with a minor road.

History

Built in 1842 (date on building), and extended later by the addition of a W porch and vestry.

Exterior

A parish church with nave and chancel under a single roof, still in the simple lancet style of the early C19 that was favoured before the ecclesiological revival of the 1840s, with added W porch and vestry. Of rubble stone with slate roof behind coped gables. The added freestone W bellcote has a single bell. Below it are 3 stepped pointed windows lighting the gallery. The added W porch has vestry rooms set back on each side and with splayed corners, all beneath coped parapets concealing the roofs. The entrance has pointed double doors, the vestry rooms small pointed windows. The N and S walls of the main church have 3 pointed windows, and on the S side is an added lean-to boiler room set back from the W end. The added late C19 E window is 3-light Perpendicular under a hood mould. Above the window is a diamond tablet recording the building of the church in 1842.

Interior

From the porch are segmental-headed panelled doors to the nave and, on the L, a simple dog-leg stair to the gallery. The 6-bay roof has collar-beam trusses with diagonal struts below the collars. The W gallery has a panelled front. The Gothic panelled reredos in the sanctuary is C20.

The freestone Perpendicular style font is dated 1914. It has a stem of 4 clustered marble shafts with foliage capitals around the underside of the bowl, an octagonal bowl with relief ornament, and the inscription 'Suffer little children' around the rim. Simple pews have shaped ends. The polygonal wooden pulpit, dated 1913, has open cusped arches. The communion rail has twisted iron uprights and scroll brackets to a moulded wooden rail.

Chancel windows form a set by the same artist, post 1915. In the E and S windows Christ is depicted with women, including Jairus's daughter and Mary sister of Martha, and in the N window is the angel pronouncing the resurrection to Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of James.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a parish church in the early C19 Gothic style favoured before the ecclesiological revival of the 1840s, and with a characteristic 'preaching box' type interior without a separate chancel.