PGW(Po)54(POW)

St.Aelhaiarn Churchyard, Guilsfield  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Powys  

Guilsfield  

321922  

311653  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Village churchyard with high arboricultural interest, trees planted in a designed scheme.  

c. 1300 - west tower, c. 1400 - main body of church, c. 1600 main planting, c. 1879 restoration by G.E. Street.  

Registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved circular walled churchyard, which surrounds the medieval church. Superb examples of ancient managed yew trees grow around the periphery of the churchyard. St. Aelhaiarn's church (Cadw LB 7866) lies in the old village centre of Guilsfield. The churchyard is raised, standing between 1m and 2m above the level of the lanes which surround it, and is supported by a stone retaining wall. It is believed that the form, shape and level of the churchyard has remained much the same since the late medieval period. The churchyard has been closed to new burials since 1907. There are three entrances, on the south, south-west and north-west. The south entrance is the main one and opens on to a 2m wide tarmacked path which runs in a straight line to the church porch. The other two entrances connect with footpaths which lead diagonally towards the church, intersecting a short length of path which runs around the west end of the tower to the porch. Nineteenth-century iron gates and gate posts survive at each entrance. The main feature of the churchyard layout are the regularly spaced yew trees which grow around the perimeter of the area. Some have been lost, stumps remain, but there are about twenty trees presently growing. The largest, and oldest, trees are located along the south and west boundary, younger trees along the east. Their date is uncertain. It is probable that the medieval churchyard contained yews but the clearest indication of the dates of the older trees comes from a grave, the Jones monument, inside the south gate on the west. A headstone, now barely legible, reads: Here lyeth ye body of Richard Jones of Moysgwin, gent., who was interred December ye 10th 1707 aged 90 Under this yew tree Buried would hee bee For his father and hee Planted this yew tree. Sources: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, 230-2 (ref: PGW(Po)54). Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, second edition, sheet: Montgomeryshire XV.15 (1902).