8803

 

II*  

Designated  

31/05/1962  

24/09/2004  

Church of St Cewydd  

 

Powys  

Aberedw  

 

Aberedw  

308026  

247316  

 

Within a churchyard on the S side of the road through the village and on the N side of the River Edw.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

A medieval church said to have been founded in the C6, but the present building is C15 and C16. The nave and chancel are the oldest surviving part, then the tower and finally the porch. The church was restored by S.W. Williams, architect of Rhayader, in 1888, and further restoration in 1914 included insertion of the present nave S windows.  

Tudor-Gothic style church comprising nave with lower chancel, N porch and W tower. Walls are rubble stone, whitened to the nave and chancel, with stone-tile roof. The lower but otherwise large N porch is open-fronted with a timber-framed gable enriched with bold quatrefoil and trefoil decoration. The roof has cusped barge boards. E of the porch is a 2-light nave window with trefoil-headed lights. The chancel has a 3-light square-headed N window, which has pointed lights and sunk spandrels. To the R of the window are 3 memorial tablets, 2 with moulded surrounds, commemorating Jeremiah Powell (d 1715), Charles Watkins (d 1707) and John Watkins (d 1712). Another tablet, below the window sill, is badly weathered. There is no E window. On the S side of the chancel is a blocked 4-centred doorway. It has a 2-light window to the L and 4-light window to the R, both with similar detail to the N window. To the upper R of the doorway is a memorial tablet to Catherine Davies (d 1709) with well-cut letters. Upper L of the L-hand window is a tablet to Daniel James (d 1786) by Games of Talgarth. The nave has three 2-light square-headed windows with cusped lights and sunk central spandrel. The unbuttressed 2-stage W tower has red-sandstone dressings to openings inserted in 1888, and raised bands between stages. A pointed S doorway has 2 orders of continuous chamfer and hood mould, with a small window above it. Small original windows are in the W and N faces. The 2-light belfry windows have cusped lights and hood moulds, with louvres. The pyramidal slate roof has an apex weathervane.  

The porch has a central arched-brace truss. E and W walls have low wooden benches, with higher stone benches behind. Attached to the E wall is a grave slab with 'IH 1604' in low relief. Attached to the W wall is a grave slab to Jeremiah Cartwright (d 1722). The nave has a pointed N doorway with 2 orders of ovolo moulding, and replacement door with vertical ribs. The nave has an 8-bay arched-brace roof on moulded brackets, probably C17. The chancel has a medieval wagon roof on a plain cornice, with moulded ribs and plain bosses. The late-medieval rood screen has a wide central doorway flanked by 7 narrow bays each side, which have a panelled dado and delicate tracery heads. Above are 2 tiers of post-medieval corkscrew balusters and moulded cornice, probably the original rood beam. The nave has a panelled wainscot comprised of old box pews, the chancel has sanctuary tiles of 1888. Gothic cast-iron communion rails are by Hodges & Wright. The wooden reredos has a wide cusped panel with IHS monogram, pinnacles and castellated cornice. Above are a pair of pointed, painted panels with the Decalogue, flanked by a similar panels with Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed. At the W end of the nave is a boarded screen, enclosing a vestry. The octagonal font was made in 1854, the original font having been taken to Alltmawr, Brecknockshire. It has cusped panels with Passion symbols, and an ornate stem with alternate foliage and vertical panel designs. Pews of 1914 have shaped ends, and choir stalls have boarded fronts and ends with stepped buttresses. The open polygonal pulpit has Gothic tracery. In the chancel N wall is a wall tablet to James Baskerville (d 1792) by S. Thomas of Brecon, comprising a freestone panel surmounted by a coat of arms and urn. To its L is a marble panel to Joan Jones (d 1793) by R. Millward of Hay, comprising inscription panel in an architrave, which has an apron with a dove in low relief, and pediment with garland and blank oval panel. Next to it is a brass inscription panel to George Greenwood (d 1867). In the embrasure of the W window in the chancel S wall is a slate tablet with oval inscription panel to James James (d 1783) by T. Games of Talgarth. Two windows have stained glass. In the nave S wall are SS Cewydd and Teilo, by William Glasby and dated 1923. In the chancel S wall is Simon with Jesus, by A.J. Dix, dated 1904.  

Listed grade II* for its special architectural interest as a well-preserved medieval church retaining good medieval and later detail.