84420

 

II  

Designated  

27/05/2005  

27/05/2005  

Church of St Cadfarch  

 

Powys  

Cadfarch  

 

Penegoes  

276973  

300970  

N  

Located towards the W end of the village, set back from the N side of the main road.  

 

 

Church of c1877 by John Prichard, architect, replacing a medieval church on the site. It is possible that the church was not built to the original design: there is a crossing but no tower, instead of which is a small bell turret on the N side. The father of the landscape painter, Richard Wilson R.A. (1713-82), was Rector of the earlier church.  

A simple Decorated Gothic style church. Nave, crossing, chancel, S porch, N bell turret and N vestry. Constructed of blocks of sawn slate under a slate roof, with heavy yellow sandstone dressings. Detail includes corbelled eaves, and tall plinth with moulded sandstone coping. The windows are mainly single lights in geometric tracery, with cusped trefoiled heads. Gabled porch to L with steeply pitched roof, raised stone copings and a cross to the apex. Tall pointed arch of yellow sandstone, with broached bases at plinth height, roll mouldings and hoodmould. Inside the porch, wagon roof, doorway into nave with trefoiled head and boarded door with decorative strap hinges. To R of porch, the nave has 2 pairs of single lights, linked by a continuous hoodmould. Large gable to crossing, under which is a tall 2-light window with trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil under the arch; angle buttress to its R. The chancel has a single trefoiled light. East end has 3-light panel-traceried window. To its R is a full-height angle buttress with offsets, over which runs a catslide roof to the N vestry; this has a trefoiled light to E end. North side of chancel has boarded door to R of vestry, and a pair of single lights. To R, projecting 2-stage bell turret with hipped roof, its ridge height lower than the nave and chancel; rectangular louvre openings to 2nd stage, some paired, similar light to 1st stage. Immediately to its R is a single light, then an external stack above a small lean-to boiler house. The nave is lit by a pair of single lights. West end has an over-sized wheel-window with continuous hoodmould.  

The interior walls of the church are of polychrome brickwork; yellow background with banding, diaper-work and relieving arches in red and black, along with narrow slivers of blue-grey slate. The nave has a wagon roof and quarry tile floor with polychrome diaper-work. The paired windows have trefoiled rere-arches supported on black marble colonettes with ringed capitals and bases. Octagonal bowl font to SW with incised crosses, IHS monograms and birds, resting on a base of clustered shafts. Remains of an earlier font lie nearby. Central aisle, the benches with carved ends. Pulpit to NE with octagonal wooden decorative front. The 4 arches of the crossing spring from shared responds; pointed stone arches with 2 orders of mouldings on wall posts with ringed capitals. The crossing has a wood- panelled roof supported on stone corbels; choir stalls with decorative backs including open trefoiled arches springing from colonettes. The bay to the N contains the organ, said to be Grecian and c1800. The sanctuary has a 3-bay arched-brace roof with cusped windbraces. Decorative reredos of white stone, with traceried arches on colonettes. Simple memorial tablets, mainly to former rectors of the church. Marble tablet to N wall of chancel, to Rev. Thomas Lewis Hughes, who died at the rectory in 1836. Two plain tablets to N wall of nave, one to the painter, Richard Wilson R.A., born at Penegoes Rectory 1713, died in Denbighshire 1782. The tablet to its L is to Rector John Williams (d. 1904). On the S wall is a tablet to Rector David Roberts (1884-1926). Stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, c1880. The E window shows Christ, the dedication obscured. Also stained glass to S chancel window, with inscription 'lettest thy servant depart in peace'. Small floral motifs to S nave window. N nave window depicts Christ and his disciples. Possibly some fragments of medieval glass to wheel-window.  

Listed as a small village church by this prominent Gothic-revival architect, with strong consistent architectural character; a good essay in the Decorated style.