24368

 

II  

Designated  

14/11/2000  

14/11/2000  

Church of SS Julius and Aaron  

 

Rhondda Cynon Taff  

Llanharan  

Pontyclun  

Llanharan  

300262  

183202  

W  

In a walled churchyard, set back from the N side of the village centre.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The earliest reference to a church at Llanharan is in 1563. Memorial tablets were retained from the old church when it was replaced by the present church, built 1856-7 by Prichard and Seddon.  

A geometrical style church comprising nave, lower and narrower chancel, and S porch. The walls have battered bases emphasised by a band of dressed stone similar to the dressed impost bands. The masonry is coursed rubble in a combination of thin and thick courses and with red and grey stones chosen for their polychrome effect. The polychrome is more strikingly used for the voussoirs above the openings. The windows all have hood moulds with foliage stops. The steep slate roofs are behind coped gables. The 3-bay nave has two 2-light windows and the porch to the L. This has a 2-centred arch with continuous wave moulding and narrow cusped lancets to the side walls. To the L of the porch is an elliptical wall tablet commemorating Anna Hansard, probably C18 but the date no longer legible. The chancel has 3 cusped lancets to the S wall, with sill as well as impost band, and a 3-light E window. The N chancel wall has a single cusped lancet, to the R of which is an outshut vestry. The nave N wall has 2 windows (the centre bay is blank). The W wall has 2-light windows flanking a central buttress. The buttress has an offset with a gablet and continues up to carry the belfry, which is corbelled out from the W wall. On its W side the belfry has an open pointed quatrefoil below the bell openings. The bell openings comprise 2 cusped lancets in each face, each opening having an open quatrefoil panel above the sill, and with linked hood moulds with foliage panels in the centre of each face. The small broached spire has a single tier of lucarnes.  

The S doorway has a continuous wave moulding and a diagonal-boarded door with strap hinges. The windows have moulded rere arches. The roof is composed of closely-spaced scissor-braced trusses with diagonal boarding behind. Above the wall plate is a moulded cornice. In the W wall the belfry projects on corbels flanking the bell ropes, above which is a blind pointed quatrefoil. The simple chancel arch has a continuous wave moulding and hood mould with foliage stops. The chancel has a richer 3-bay roof. Arched-brace trusses rise from wall posts on foliage corbels, and have a single tier of windbraces, behind which are panels painted as a starry firmament. The E window rere arch has a hood mould with foliage stops. The vestry door in the N wall has a continuous wave moulding and diagonal-boarded door with strap hinges. The font has a moulded octagonal bowl and base, while the square stem is set diagonally and has 4 attached shafts. The pulpit has blind Gothic arches and pointed trefoils. Simple pews have moulded ends. Only the E window contains stained glass, comprising an unsigned ascension, which commemorates Richard Jenkins of Llanharan House who died in 1856. In the SE corner of the chancel is a foliage corbel. Memorial tablets have been salvaged from the old church. An elliptical tablet in the S wall of the nave commemorates Rees Powell (died 1758) of Llanharan House and his immediate family, who are said to have been descended from Einion ap Cadifor ap Collwyn, Prince of Dyfed. In the chancel is a simple tablet to William Gibbon (died 1810) of Trecastell, and a former C18 grave slab to the Matthew family of Meiros Farm, Llanharan.  

Listed for its architectural interest as a good early work by Prichard and Seddon, architects of Cardiff and London.