23917

 

II  

Designated  

15/08/2000  

15/08/2000  

Church of St Ann  

 

Rhondda Cynon Taff  

Pont-y-Clun  

Pontyclun  

Talygarn  

302641  

180108  

 

Approximately 0.5km W of Talygarn House, reached by path or minor road W of Cowbridge Road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Built in 1887 by G T Clark of Talygarn House in memory of his wife Ann Price Clark (d.1885) (details on memorial tablet). It stands next to an older chapel, of ancient foundation, which had been restored in 1687 by Sir Leoline Jenkins. Clark, a well-known antiquary and the manager of the Dowlais Ironworks, designed the new church himself, as he had also designed Talygarn House. The clerk of works, as for the house, was John Jones of Dowlais.  

Mainly Tudor Gothic in style and comprising nave with porch, S tower and a lower and narrower geometrical style chancel. Built of snecked, rock-faced stone and tile roofs. The 3-bay nave has 4-light windows and a gabled porch set back from the W end on the S side. This has a pointed doorway and hood mould with foliage stops. Above it is a cusped window with hood. A string course is carried around the side walls at sill level of plain square-headed windows. The W window is 3-light Perpendicular. The S tower, built against the chancel, is 3-stage, of which the upper stage is narrower. The lower stage has diagonal buttresses, a cusped window in the S wall, 2-light Tudor window to the W and a pointed doorway with boarded door in the E wall, offset from the angle with the chancel. Above the doorway is a tablet recording the restoration of the old chapel in 1687 and the building of the new chapel in 1887. The middle stage has cusped windows to E and W and a small stair light to the L in the S wall, while the upper stage has 2-light belfry windows and a plain parapet. The chancel has 2-light N and S windows and 3-light E window. A N projection, housing the organ, has a 2-light Tudor E window, with lean-to vestry against the gable end.  

Inside the porch is a 2-centred arch to the nave (the door now removed). The nave has a collar-beam roof strengthened by sinuous diagonal struts rising from moulded corbels. An early C13 style wide chancel arch has rounded responds, foliate capitals and segmental-pointed arch with 2 orders of chamfer. Segmental arches also lead to the tower on the S side (now the vestry) and organ recess on the N. The chancel has a boarded polygonal ceiling with thin ribs. The piscina has a projecting fluted bowl, a cusped arch and hood with foliage stops. The octagonal font has moulded base and tall stem, and a small bowl. The octagonal stone pulpit has panels with blind cusped arches and stands on a thin pedestal. Above the chancel arch is a mosaic figure of Christ. The E window has unsigned stained glass depicting the Virgin and Child flanked by SS Ann and Elizabeth. To the R of the chancel arch is a memorial tablet to G T Clark (1809-98), comprising an inscription on encaustic tiles, with a mosaic border and marble frame, above which is a tablet with lion rampant in relief. To the L of the chancel arch are 2 similar tablets to Clark's son Godfrey Lewis Clark (d.1918) and his wife Alice (d.1915).  

Listed primarily for historic interest as a memorial chapel built by one of the leading industrialists of late C19 S Wales, and for group value with Talygarn House and other associated listed items.