Eglwys Newydd Church, Ceredigion (PRN 5491)

EGLWYS NEWYDD CHURCH, PONTARFYNACH, CEREDIGION

Dyfed PRN 5491

 RB No. 3115

 NGR SN 7685 7364

 Listed Building no. 9867

 Grade B listed (1998) Grade II* listed 1964

First Listed in 1964. Last Amended in 2005.

Reason for Listing: Included at II* for the historical associations with the Hafod estate, and for the architectural quality of the 1930s remodelling.

 SUMMARY

19th century church; 0% pre-19th century core fabric. On site of, and in same location as, 17th century church.

A multicell church, small-medium sized. Aligned NNE-SSW. Consists of nave, 2 bays; ‘north’ transept, 1 bay; ‘south’ transept, 1 bay; ‘west’ tower, 3 storeys; all 1803. Chancel, 2 bays, apsidal; vestry, (‘north’), 1 bay; 1888. Construction is in local slate rubble; plastered within. Slate gable roofs, chancel with a slate hipped roof, vestry with a flat roof, tower roof not seen. All openings are from 1888, neo-gothic, with grey oolite dressings; limited external buttressing. West tower with crenellated parapet, rebuilt 1888?.

Roofs: 1803. Floors: 1888. Finishes: 1992-4.

Condition – good.

Archaeological potential – good. Deep, slab-lined drain around 100% of church; floors are suspended over heating flues in 100% of church; below-ground heating chamber in 5% of church.

Structural value (pre 19th century) – poor. 0% pre 19th century core fabric.

Group value – medium-high. Good, early C19 estate church; attractive estate setting.

Phasing:

Phase 1 – Nave, transepts and west tower, 1803.

Phase 2 – Chancel and vestry, 1888.

 DESCRIPTION

Eglwys Newydd Church is a multicelled church, of small-medium size. It was founded in 1603, but was entirely (re)built in 1803 on the same site, and in the same location as its predecessor, but nothing was retained from the earlier fabric.

The present church is not aligned east-west, but rather NNE-SSW with the ‘west end’ to the NNE. It consists of a 2-bayed apsidal, polygonal chancel, a 2-bayed nave, single-bayed ‘north’ and ‘south’ transepts, a three-storeyed ‘west’ tower, and a single-bayed vestry ‘north’ of the chancel ‘west’ bay. Construction is in local slate rubble and in the ‘estate church’ style; the exterior was repointed and the interior replastered in 1992-4. Openings are neo-gothic and from 1888, with grey oolite dressings; windows are 2- and 3-light with simple tracery. There is limited external buttressing, from 1803. The west tower has a crenellated parapet, possibly (re)built in 1888. The roofs are slated gables, the chancel has a hipped-roof, the vestry has a flat roof and the tower roof was not seen.

The church was first founded in 1603, but nothing remains of the original structure (Lewis, 1833). It was rebuilt in 1803 as an ‘elegant cruciform structure’ (ibid.)  which form the bulk of the present structure. The chancel was small and square-ended, the floors were flagged and the windows were timber-framed.

The church was extended and restored in 1888 to the designs of the architect A. Ritchie of Chester (NLW, SD/F/157), when the small square chancel was replaced with the present polygonal apse, the vestry was added, the church was refenestrated and refloored, and the roof was repaired. The west gallery was removed. A heating chamber for a ‘Porritt’s’ stove was excavated within the nave.

Superficial restoration was undertaken in the 1930s following a major fire (Hook Mason, 1994, 4) and renovations were carried out in 1992-4 (ibid.).

The font is from 1792 (Anon, 1915, 29) is octagonal and in late Perpendicular style.

A deep, slab-lined drain surrounds the church. Floors are suspended over heating flues and there is a below-ground heating chamber in the nave. No external memorials lie significantly close to the church.

The church was Grade B listed in 1998. Grade II* listed in 1964.

First Listed in 1964. Last Amended in 2005.

SITE HISTORY

 There was no pre-conquest religious use of the site.

Eglwys Newydd Church was not the site of a medieval religious establishment (Rees, 1932). It was founded as a private chapel by the Herberts, of the nearby mansion at Hafod, in 1620 (Lewis, 1833), but was a chapelry of the established church, for Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn parish, by 1803.

In 1833 the living was a perpetual curacy in the patronage of Thomas Johnes, Esq., of Hafod, endowed with £1000 royal bounty and £1200 parliamentary grant (ibid.).

In 1998 Eglwys Newydd Church was a chapelry. The living was a vicarage, held with Ysbyty Cynfyn and Llantrisant (Benefice no. 828) in the Archdeaconry of Cardigan, Rural Deanery of Llanbadarn Fawr (St Davids, 1997-8).

 SOURCES CONSULTED

 Map Evidence

Blaeu, J., 1648, Map of Cardiganshire.

NLW, Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn Uchaf township, Tithe Map, 1841.

NLW, Ordnance Survey 1:2500, Second Edition, Sheet XII.13.

Rees, W., 1932, South Wales and the Border in the XIVth century.

Church in Wales Records

Hook Mason, 1994, Quinquennial Report, Eglwys Newydd.

St Davids, 1997-8, Diocesan Year Book.

NLW, SD/F/156, Faculty – Removal of corpse, 1879.

NLW, SD/F/157, Faculty – Restoration of church, 1887.

Printed Accounts

Anon., 1915, ‘Cardiganshire Fonts’, Transactions of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society Vol. II.

Evans, G. E., 1917, ‘Cardiganshire: Its Plate, Records and Registers’, Archaeol. Cambrensis Vol. XVII, Sixth Series.

Lewis, S., 1833, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales.

Various, 1994, ‘The Church in Ceredigion in the Early Middle Ages’, in Davies, J. L., and Kirby, D. P. (eds.), Cardiganshire County History Vol. I.

Up dated: August 2021 – PKR.

Heneb - The Trust for Welsh Archaeology