83433

 

II  

Designated  

30/12/2004  

30/12/2004  

Church of St Tecwyn  

 

Gwynedd  

Talsarnau  

 

Llandecwyn  

263227  

337626  

 

At the end of a country lane, once the county road to Maentwrog, c1km W of the main village of Llandecwyn.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Late C19 church built slightly to the N of the foundations of the earlier church. Built in 1879-80 to the designs of Thomas Roberts and incorporating a C11 inscribed stone and an arched recess from the fabric of its predecessor.  

Rural parish church comprising continuous nave and chancel with SW porch. Simple early gothic style. Built of coursed, mortared, rubble masonry with plinth course and freestone dressings; slate roof with decorative tiled ridge and single W bellcote. The church is of 5 bays, each bay articulated by a stepped raking buttress and has a single pointed arched window; there is a similar window in the W gable and the E gable has a narrow trefoil-headed light with round-headed recess in the apex above. The SW porch has a pointed arched entrance.  

The church interior is simple with a roof of 5 bays with exposed, chamfered, arch braced trusses down to wallposts on shaped corbels. The chancel is raised by a single step and the sanctuary a further step. On the N wall of the chancel is an inscribed stone, thought to be C11, found during the rebuilding of the church, which bears a crudely carved cross and the inscription: Scti Tetquini Pr[esbyter]i h[o]ri Dei claris [imi] q[ue] Dei s[e]roi Heli diaco[n]i me fecit + a. b. c. d. e. f. + [the Cross of] St. Tecwyn, presbyter, to the honour of God and the most illustrious servant of God, Heli, deacon, made me. (the last word may read 'merci'). On the S wall of the chancel is an arched recess with stone tablet to Iohn Owen, son of Owen Iohn of Caerwych d.1766 above.  

Listed as a late C19 rural parish church in a prominent, early site. that contains features of the earlier church within its fabric, most notably a C11 inscribed stone of particular historic interest. The church forms a group with the adjacent church house.