St Cynnog, Defynnog

     I realize I've ben a bit lax of late when it comes to posting - apologies.  Last week I was in Wales visiting with the bf.  On the Thursday we went over the Brecon Beacons and down into the valley of the Usk and that excellent market town of Brecon, which I have blogged about before.  On the way we stopped off at the attractive village of Defynnog in the Senni valley, being attracted by the strong, severe church tower. We were not disappointed.  It is a place of almost serene beauty.
     The tower is a rather martial, confident design - the belfry windows, as you can see, are tiny.  Like most medieval church towers in Wales it is unbuttressed but, like the tower of St Peter in Carmathern and the tower at Llangathen the ground floor has a pronounced batter.  Defensive or structural, I wonder? but here the simplicity seems particularly at ease in the spectacular landscape.  The church is equally as simple, really nothing more than a long rectangle with a projecting s porch and a large chapel to the n of the chancel.  Though looking back at the photographs I took, there seems to be some sort of disturbance to the s wall of the nave that suggests there may have been some sort of projecting chapel at some point in the past.  That said I really know nothing of its history except that the projecting eaves etc, which give it quite a domestic air, suggest a Victorian restoration. The lychgate is certainly Victorian. There is perp tracery in both the east windows, and Gothick at the west end of the nave, what intrigued me however were the round headed windows elsewhere - were they original or Late Victorian?  Either way a very satisfying design.
     Pushing open the door I was met with a surprise.  Firstly the door jamb seemed unending, (quite a surreal moment!), as though the wall of the church was immensely thick.  It soon turned out not so for built right against the edge of the doorway was a wall running across the whole width of the nave.  We had stepped into what was in effect a tall, narrow narthex - that was the second surprise. The narthex had sliced the nave into three parts with the west end divided off as a vestry (not a vestry but a schoolroom - 06.08.2018).  When, I wondered had this all been undertaken? Not recently I think.  Not that the subdivision of the nave meant a cramped place of worship.  The interior is broad and spacious, and - delight of delights - it is still lit with oil lamps.  Betjeman and, indeed, John Piper would have been pleased.  Fittings were not that exciting, except for a number of wonderfully evocative ledgerstones in the n chapel. In all, however, eminently satisfying.

Alas I was too interested in the architecture and landscape to notice the yew trees in the churchyard.  One in particular is immense, and is very old - ancient in fact, being at least 5,000 years old.

(06.08.2018 - turns out this was not the only treasure we missed, there's memorial immured in the tower that dates back to the 5th century, that is to somebody who quite conceivably had lived during the last days of the Roman Empire in Britain. Incredible.)