83326

 

II  

Designated  

25/11/2004  

25/11/2004  

Church of St John the Baptist  

 

Ceredigion  

Blaenrheidol  

Aberystwyth  

Ysbyty Cynfin  

275242  

279096  

 

Situated in churchyard on W side of A4120 about 2km S of Ponterwyd.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Anglican parish church, former chapel of ease to Llanbadarn Fawr. Rebuilt 1827 after the previous church had been inspected and condemned by Edward Lumley of Aberystwyth. The completion certificate was signed in 1836 by W. Coultart of Aberystwyth, but the design is said to have been drawn up by an 'old man, a house builder in the place'. The previous church was described by the Rev. W. Shepherd in 1803 as 'a small dilapidated building which I should have passed as a tolerably large cottage'. Meyrick mentions an octagonal font and a black stone monument to T. Hughes of Tynllwyn died 1781. The churchwardens accounts give details: in 1807 it was said that the chapel had been much enlarged and was undergoing a thorough repair for £60. The pews, seats, pulpit, desk and table were all new and there was a decent font, but no shutters and a casement only to the pulpit window. The windows had been glazed by 1813. In 1828 the old chapel had been taken down and removed, the church was lately rebuilt but not finished internally, the roof slated, the windows glazed, the floor new, the aisles flagged but there were no pews or seats. The ICBS papers give the estimate for the new church as £260/8/9d (£260.44) with an extra £27/5/11d (£27.30) for a gallery and porch. The drawing shows the church much as built but on N side one pointed window and a square small gallery window to left. It is not clear if the pointed windows were originally in wood, later replaced in stone. The vicar's letter implies that the gallery was built as 'all the congregation are either stowed in the gallery or have to stand with their backs against the wall'. The ICBS gave a grant of £60 for pews in 1834-6. In 1860 the interior was said to have been greatly improved of late years. The pews and font look later C19, the pulpit, chancel fittings and E window of c. 1952. Church is set in large churchyard with four larger standing stones set into the gateway and SE curve of the enclosure (listed separately). There are several iron-railed burial enclosures and some well-lettered slate tombs and headstones.  

Parish church, roughcast stone with slate close-eaved single roof and rendered W bellcote. W end has no windows. Bellcote has slate drips each side, then slate sill, single arched opening with side piers with two slate courses near tops and inset shallow-curved top (similar to bellcote at Ystrad Fflur). S side has added gabled porch to left and two windows, N side has 2 windows, all windows pointed with stone Y-tracery and leaded glazing (the glazing late C19). S side has recessed rendered-over stone voussoirs. Added porch is gabled with cement coping, rendered pointed arch, C20 board doors and Y-tracery overlight. Porch has thin boarding within and plain square-headed S door within: painted-grained flush-panelled double doors. E end has large pointed 3-light similar to other windows with intersecting tracery. Attached to S side is long iron-railed early C19 burial enclosure with spearhead rails and urn finials to stanchions (enclosing tombs to Hughes family of Ty Llwyn and Jones of Hafodau).  

Plastered interior with plain roof of six tie-beam and king-post trusses with three rows of purlins each side. One step to sanctuary. Fittings: Two fonts, one later C19 Bath stone octagonal the other an extraordinary C19 wooden font, possibly an exhibition piece of c.1850-60. Octagonal wooden bowl with boxwood pointed panels in surrounds with crockets and column shafts. Octagonal base with 8 scroll feet with lion heads. Inside is a papier-mâché shallow dish. Font cover is flat with delicate relief stippling and centre handle of a figure carrying cross entwined with snake and acanthus finial. Painted boards with Ten Commandments on left, Creed and Lord's Prayer on right, dated 1836. Later C19 pews. War Memorial fittings in oak of c.1950 including big hexagonal pulpit with carved panels and scrolled cornice, altar rails, three chairs and lectern. Stained glass: E window by Celtic Studios 1952 to Rev Slingsby Jenkins died 1948, three lights, Christ with SS David and John the Baptist.  

Included as an earlier C19 small church with some unusual fittings. The church building history shows an almost vernacular process by contrast with richer parishes.