|
Disserth Church is in
the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, in the community of Disserth
and Trecoed in the county of Powys. It is located at Ordnance
Survey national grid reference SO0344058360.
The church is recorded in the CPAT Sites and Monuments
Record as number 16771 and this number should be quoted in all
correspondence.
 Summary
St Cewydd's church at Disserth lies in a loop of
the River Ithon less than 4km south-west of Llandrindod Wells. It
is a fairly simple structure with nave and chancel in one and a
west tower, but its importance lies in the fact that as Haslam
notes 'it stands very much as a Victorian architect, called in for
advice, might have found many of the Radnorshire churches'. The
absence of 19thC restoration has left an interesting interior with
box pews and decked pulpit of the early 18thC together with wall
paintings and some monuments, and from an earlier age, the font
and fragments of the rood screen. The churchyard is large and
rectangular with some 18thC monuments, much overgrown.
Tower supposedly of c.1400, and of one build,
though there is a blocked doorway on the north side; the
battlements are thought to have been added within the last two
hundred years or so.
No windows in body of church earlier than 16thC
and wooden windows are probably later. However, the walls where
not rebuilt, could be earlier, in keeping with the south doorway,
and the single cell nave and chancel might be 14thC. Externally,
it does appear that the tower butts up against the west wall of
the nave though there are internal tower buttresses which RCAHMW
thought were part of an earlier nave structure.
An in-depth analysis of the building sequence is
required at Disserth.
Parts of the following description are quoted from
the 1979 publication The Buildings of Wales: Powys
by Richard Haslam
History
The church is dedicated to St Cewydd, one of the
less commonly commemorated saints who is thought to have lived in
the 6thC. The location is also suggestive of an early medieval
origin, but as is normal in the rural churches of Powys there is
no direct evidence of such an early beginning.
In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas it is recorded as
'Ecclesia de Dysserch' at a value of œ6 13s 4d. 'Disserthe' also
appears in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, its value at œ16 seeming
excessive for a small parish church.
Glynne visited Disserth, probably in the
mid-19thC. He thought that the tower windows had a Decorated look,
and that beneath the wooden east window the wall contained a
flat-arched recess. Most of the other windows were modern and of
the 'worse kind' The nave was ceiled and the chancel had a coved
roof with ribs, while at the west end the gallery had been built
across the tower arch. No mention was made of exterior whitewash.
There was no Victorian restoration, although the
roof was ceiled over by the churchwardens in 1839. Except for the
section over the sanctuary, the roof timbers were re-exposed by F.
E. Howard in the ?early 20thC. Restoration took place in 1979.
Text and picture 1 from this
web site: http://www.cpat.demon.co.uk/projects/longer/churches/radnor/16771.htm
Please
visit it for further details of this and other churches in
Radnorshire.
all © CPAT.
|
