20655

 

II  

Designated  

21/10/1998  

21/10/1998  

Church of St John the Evangelist  

 

Powys  

Llanfihangel Cwmdu with Bwlch and Cathedine  

 

Tretower  

318620  

221282  

 

In the centre of Tretower on S side of A479 and N of Tretower Court. The site occupies a triangular plot surrounded by minor roads.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Erected 1876-7 by J.L. Pearson on the site of an earlier church. The patron of the new church was Sir Joseph Russell Bailey of Glanusk Park. Pearson, who was employed as the Glanusk Estate architect, followed the lancet style and bellcote of the earlier church.  

Early-English style church consisting of a nave with S porch and bellcote, chancel, and vestry and organ projection on N side. Coursed rubble sandstone with tooled quoins, and honey-coloured limestone dressings, continuous sill band and moulded cornice. Tile roof with slightly swept eaves. The coped gable between nave and chancel has a double bellcote on the ridge, which has a string course below 2 lancet bell openings, with continuous impost band, above which the bellcote is crowned by gablets. The nave S wall has 2 paired lancets under continuous hood moulds to R of porch and similar lancet to L. The very fine porch has a steeply-pitched roof and a coped gable on moulded kneelers. The entrance archway has continuous moulding and string course above. The hood mould continues round the side walls to further archways in side walls with 2-centred arches. The imposts of these side archways continue as the sill band of a 3-light mullioned window with pointed heads. Between nave and chancel is a stepped buttress crowned by a gablet. The chancel has, to S, 2 tall narrow lancets to L and 2 shorter lancets to R, 3 tall narrow, stepped lancets to E under continuous hood mould, and a 2-light geometrical window to vestry to R. The N wall of the vestry has a parapet with ramped coping and 2 lancets. The organ projection has a circular sexfoil window in the N gable, below which are 2 small single-light windows. In its W wall is a doorway under a 2-centred arch with continuous chamfer and trefoil head. Boarded door has decorative studs and strap hinges. On the S gable of the projection is a tall stone chimney with dressed stone cap. The N wall of the nave has 3 pairs of lancets similar to S wall, and a lean-to timber-framed canopy on a dwarf stone wall, with stone tile roof and stone steps leading to crypt. The nave W wall has 2 tall lancets under a continuous hood mould, flanked by roundels with inset quatrefoils.  

The porch is laid with red tiles in a diamond pattern with black-tile edging. Inside the 3 archways are stone steps to a higher level where there are 2 stone slab benches, each supported on 2 moulded orthostats, against the side walls. The S doorway has a 2-centred arch with moulded imposts incorporating a frieze of nailhead. Boarded door has decorative studs and strap hinges. The nave and chancel openings have deep splays and a continuous sill band. The chancel arch is 2-centred with 2 orders of chamfers and a hood mould with stylised stops. Beneath moulded capitals are 2 orders of attached shafts with shaft rings. The nave has an arched-brace roof with a single tier of cusped wind braces. The chancel roof is plainer and has collar beams and scissor braces. The font, in white stone, has a square bowl with attached shafts at the corners, beneath which are 4 larger shafts detached from the octagonal pedestal and set on a square base. The pulpit, in similar stone, stands on a round base above which are detached shafts, and has thinner attached shafts, a frieze of blind trefoil arches and a moulded cornice incorporating a frieze of dog tooth. Plain benches in the nave. The choir stalls have ends with stylised poppy heads, backs with blind trefoils and the fronts of the stalls have pierced trefoil arches. The communion rail is of wood supported on Y-shaped cast iron uprights infilled with scrollwork. Double sedilia under 2-centred arches, the central shaft of which has a waterleaf capital. Reredos of plain marble in 3 panels over a frieze of foiled circles and ellipses. Stained glass in E window added in 1906.  

A well-detailed late Victorian church in a prominent location, making an important contribution to the setting of Tretower Court and Castle.