ST CYNON, CAPEL CYNON, CEREDIGION
Dyfed PRN 5276
RB No. 3692
NGR SN 3830 4938
Listed Building no. 17620
Grade II listed (1998)
First Listed in 1964. Last Amended in 1996.
Reasons for Listing: Listed as a very good example of Caroe’s simple and understated restoration of an early C19 church, good fittings by Caroe.
SUMMARY
19th century church; some pre-19th century core fabric?.
A 3-cell church, small-medium sized. Consists of nave, 3 bays, 1820 but retaining some medieval core fabric?. Chancel, 2 bays; organ chamber (north of chancel), 1 bay; vestry (south of nave), 1 bay, late 19th century. Construction is in limestone and shale rubble. Continuous slate gable roof; vestry and organ chamber with slate lean-to roofs. All openings, except in the vestry, are from, or were altered, in the late 19th century; neo-gothic, with yellow oolite dressings. Western single bellcote, 1820? earlier?.
Roofs, floors and finishes, late 19th century.
Condition – fair-good; dressings weathered.
Archaeological potential – good. Shallow external cutting around 25% of church; very shallow earth drains around 30% of church; internal levels lowered?; suspended floors over void; external memorials significantly close to 15% of church.
Structural value (pre 19th century) – poor-fair. Some pre-1820 core fabric?.
Group value – low.
Phasing:
(Phase 1 – Nave, some medieval core fabric?).
Phase 2 – Nave, 1820.
Phase 3 – Chancel, organ chamber and vestry, 19th century.
DESCRIPTION
St Cynon, Capel Cynon, is a 2-celled church, of small size. It was rebuilt 1820 on the same site, and in the same location as its predecessor, possibly retaining some of the earlier core fabric. The chancel, vestry and organ chamber were added in the late 19th century.
The present church consists of a 2-bayed chancel, a 3-bayed nave, a single-bayed organ-chamber north of the chancel west bay and a single-bayed vestry south of the nave east bay. The nave is constructed from local shale rubble while the remainder is in roughly coursed limestone rubble. External pointing is from the late 19th century; plastered within. The openings are largely from the late 19th century, including the chancel arch, the west door and gabled ‘porchlet’, the triple cusped lancet east window, the 2-light neo-Perpendicular windows in the south wall, and the single square lights in the west wall and in the vestry and organ chamber; dressings are in yellow oolite. Two plain circular windows, in the nave north and west walls, are from 1820 with late 19th century surrounds. The crude, gabled single bellcote at the west end is probably from 1820 but may be earlier. The chancel and nave have a continuous, slated gable roof; the vestry and organ chamber have slated lean-to roofs. Floors are suspended except in the chancel
The church had been allowed to fall into decay prior to 1820 when it was largely rebuilt (Lewis, 1833), but possibly retaining some of the earlier core fabric. The present chancel, organ chamber and vestry were added in the late 19th century, when the church was refenestrated, the west door was rebuilt, and the interior was reroofed, refloored and reseated.
The font is late 19th century.
There is a very shallow external earth cutting around the north-east corner and chancel north wall, late 19th century. Very shallow earth-cut drains run along the nave north and south walls. Internal levels lower than external levels; floors are suspended over a void. External memorials lie significantly close to the chancel and vestry east walls.
The church was not listed in 1998.
Listed Grade II.
First Listed in 1964. Last Amended in 1996.
SITE HISTORY
There is no evidence for the pre-conquest religious use of the site.
St Cynon, Capel Cynon, is not shown as a medieval chapel site by Rees, 1932, but the area lay within the grange of Sinod (Synod), a possession of Talley Abbey. It had certainly been founded, as a chapel of Llandysiliogogo parish, whose vicar was the patron (Lewis, 1833), by the 17th century and is shown by Blaeu, 1648.
It was still a chapelry in 1833 when the living was a perpetual curacy in the patronage of one Major Parry, who had endowed the chapel with £200 benefaction; it was also endowed with £2000 parliamentary grant (Lewis, 1833).
In 1998 St Cynon, Capel Cynon, was a chapelry. The living was a vicarage, held with Llanarth, Talgarreg and Gwenlli St Mark (Benefice 802) in the Archdeaconry of Cardigan, Rural Deanery of Glyn Aeron (St Davids, 1997-8).
SOURCES CONSULTED
Map Evidence
Blaeu, J., 1648, Map of Cardiganshire.
NLW, Ordnance Survey 1:2500, First Edition, Sheet XlV.4
NLW, Parish of Llandysiliogogo, Tithe Map, 1841.
Rees, W., 1932, South Wales and the Border in the XIVth century.
Church in Wales Records
Hook Mason, 1994, Quinquennial Report, Capel Cynon.
St Davids, 1997-8, Diocesan Year Book.
Printed Accounts
Lewis, S., 1833, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales.
Salter, M., 1994, The Old Parish Churches of South West 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.
Updated: August 2021 – PKR
