7866

 

I  

Designated  

25/04/1950  

22/02/1995  

Church of St Aelhaiarn including Outbuilding to W end of N Aisle and outbuilding on W side of Porch  

 

Powys  

Guilsfield  

 

 

321925  

311655  

 

Located within a large oval raised graveyard at the centre of the village.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Parish church, the Church in Wales, Diocese of St Asaph. C12-13 tower and nave, with aisles added, first the S, early C14, followed by the N, the roof raised for a clerestorey in the late C14. Various later additions. Major sympathetic restoration by G.E.Street in 1877-9 at the cost of ú6,000. Mixed stone rubble with limestone dressings. Whitland Abbey slate roof and crested ridges. Wide nave of 4 bays, N and S aisles. added c.1400, extending along the chancel, a large S porch, and a tall chancel of 3 roof bays. Western tower.  

S porch has wave moulded arch and imposts on part-octagonal capitals, a parvise chamber over, and a lean-to structure on the W side added in 1739 [Thomas Ffoulkes/Hugh Morris Jones/ Wardens] to house the parish hearse. Windows of 1, 2 and 3 lights with trefoil heads, the eastern window of the S aisle having blank cusped panelling between the two lights. N aisle windows similar but 3-light Perpendicular E window with canted head. Chancel windows of 2 lights, a C14 S window, set high, and 5-light E window with panelled tracery. The tower is of 3 stages, massive, with low angle buttresses. Single lights to the lower stages, that on the S with rounded head and mask key. A stair is incorporated in the NE side, with small perforated stone lights. Two-light bell openings. Crenellated parapet added in C15 and corner pinnacles. A small shingled spire was restored in 1961. W door of N Aisle has a 3-centred head, the door studded with a pattern and reading RP . HR . CW . 1737. Inner entrance door of C14, plain and hollow chamfered mouldings, with a wide panelled boarded door of C15 with contempory ironwork, rehung in 1879. To right, a trefoil headed stoup. Within porch, a C17 pattern stair with turned balusters and shaped risers rises to the 2-bay chamber, former schoolroom, above. This chamber reworked in C19.  

Interior: Nave of 3 bays, the columns comprised of 4 wave mouldings carrying similar moulded arches. W bay of S arcade is occupied by the porch. 3-light clerestory windows. Late medieval roof with cambered ties and cusped windbraces, the 3 western bays having intermediate trusses, the E bay underdrawn by a fine panelled timber ceiling with gilded bosses at the intersections, which extends to the E end of the chancel. Chancel is raised by 1 step. One arcade bay each side opens to the E extensions of the aisles, that on N now the organ chamber. Broad E end with 4 widely spaced steps, all paved with Maw's encaustic tiles by Godwin. C19 reredos, panelled, carrying 4 Fathers of the Church and 4 Prophets at the ends. C19 piscina. Steps to former rood loft in the NW chancel pier. Pulpit: C19, octagonal, oak, on Mansfield stone base, with three-quarter relief figures of the evangelists. Pews and screen, with elaborate round tracery, 1879. Font: At W end, C12-C13, octagonal bowl with 4 large masks, set on column on a chamfered base. Organ: Rebuilt, but includes some pieces of an instrument of c.1830. Bells: Three, of 1781 and 1782, by T.Rudhall of Gloucester, rehung. Glass: E window, 1891, the Life of Our Lord, for W.Curling. S.Aisle E window, 1910, for Devereux Mytton, good, and W window, 1890 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Furniture: C17 restored chest in Vestry. Monuments: Retains a fine collection of 21 wall monuments. Amongst the most important is the white marble monument in the chancel by John Carline (the elder) and Linell of Shrewsbury to William Edwards of Burgedin, 1780; early C19 monuments to the Lloyd family of Trawscoed Hall; 1910 marble monument by Gawthorp & Sons, London to Capt. Devereaux Mytton of Garth and one dated 1837 to Mary Mytton by Thomas Tyley of Bristol; kneeling figure with urn by Charles Smith of London, 1828, to Revd. Richard Mytton, chaplain to Lord Clive, governor General of India. W end of Nave has 7 neo-classical wall monuments to families o the local houses of Trawscoed, Broniarth, Trelydan etc. In the north aisle is a brass engraved with a loose script within a wavy floriated border, to Elizabeth Whittingham/Rogers of Varchoel, 1676. Alabaster Gothic monument style, with marble columns, to Revd Charles Luxmoore, 1863, vicar for 43 years.  

Included at Grade I as a rich and important medieval church on an early site, with traditional connections with the C5 and C6 evangelism of Wales, St Bueno and the royal house of Powys, with a significant collection of monuments of the C18 and C19.