St Mary, Builth Wells

     Last week's jaunt took us up into Powys and Llandridnod Wells, Builth and Llanwrtyd Wells.  Llandridnod is a quite extraordinary place, as though a late nineteenth century suburb of London had been uprooted and then dropped into rural  mid-wales - all Queen Anne revival, Olde English, plus the odd splash of Gothic revival, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau.  A rather laid back sort of place, perhaps lacking in direction.  I have never seen so many intact Victorian and Edwardian shop fronts.  Extraordinary.  But far too many parked cars to make photography easy.

     Then on to Builth Wells, one of the three market towns of the old county of Breconshire. (It still has a functioning cattle market - quite a rare thing to find these days esp for someone like me from eastern England where most have disappeared.) A small attractive place hugging the south bank of the Wye with a long, narrow high street. There is plenty to admire both in terms of townscape and individual buildings - though there was nothing outstanding.  I did however like the neo-Georgian Post Office.
     As with Llandridnod, Builth's heyday was probably in the nineteenth century - everything spoke of a relatively comfortable provincial life.  Food, however, was my big concern as we were walking around but I did make the effort and take some pictures of the parish church. To be honest since visiting Oystermouth and Llancarfan I've been a bit hesitant to take photographs of churches - hence I snapped nothing of the slightly bizarre, and florid, Holy Trinity, Llandridnod.

     St Mary's Builth, standing in a large graveyard full of monuments, is a mix of Victorian and Medieval. The tower is massive and blunt, 13th centrury; the church, which dates from 1875 and is the work of John Norton, is High Victorian Gothic, muscular and tough. Mincer-plate tracery in some of the windows. Perhaps a little unlovely though well detailed in places.  Hard to believe it is nearly 150 years old - will it ever weather and mellow? The east end of tower, chancel and organ chamber is well composed.  But all together more successful perhaps if the interior wasn't so cold and cavernous. It's the sort of building that Bodley should have got hold of and decorated within an inch of its life. At present it just looks tatty and barren. It really needs some help.  I'm pretty sure I saw day-light through the roof.

     I suppose too that as a gay man I ought to be grateful that this place trumpets its inclusiveness. It however does nothing for me. A church is a temple of transformation, God orientated, where the worshipper encounters and participates in and with the divine, it is not a place for the semi-secular centred upon our selves. For all the well meaning banners etc I really couldn't worship there. Sorry to bang on about this yet again but I'm slowly feeling my Anglicanism wither and die and it's a far from pleasant experience.  Trouble is that being an Anglican these days is hardly intellectually or spiritually or even aesthetically satisfying.