St Anno's Church Llananno

 

 Funny how you come across a church, I did not have this one on my radar until I read a blog by a lady called Hisdoryan. and saw the church mentioned, what took my eye was the Rood Screen, it was amazing and I had to see it for myself and as luck would have it the church was not after from another I wanted to visit but that was for another day. There is some history about St Anno's which is on it's own Wikipeda page so I will leave you to read than rather than copy it on here. As the reason for my visit was the Rood Screen you might find I have shown a lot of it, you will see why. The church is now looked after by the Friends of Friendless Churches. I must admit this is the first church I visited in Wales for a this year, Last weeks church I popped into after this one.

As it is Halloween I have added a few touches to some of the photos 

 

St Anno's church from the south, not much different to look at from churches you see around

 

To get to the church you need to walk along a path through a field and go through the entrance on the left 

A hedge passes close to the west end

The porch with the bells above

This is the north side or what you can see, I did not get a photo of the east end

Back around the south side

 

From over the churchyard

The churchyard had quite a few older headstones in it

a large fenced family plot

The odd cross

and some really nice carvings on some of the headstones

Mostly old headstones

First view in the church which as you can see is quite simple apart from the huge rood screen, there is no rood cross on the top

Here we look down the nave from the back, the photo was taken using the wide angle on my DSLM camera

 

Going through to the chancel

altar and east window

Looking back from the screen

The pulpit

View with iphone

 

 and one with wide angle on my DSLM camera

 

 The rood screen is what I came to see,  Ragged Robin I noticed in her blog had a book on them I wonder if this one is mentioned. Not often you see an original 15century rood screen when Henry V was on the throne and we had the Battle of Agincourt and Owain Glyndŵr the last prince of Wales was alive

 

 The figures carved on the screen are stunning

 

You can also see different carvings on the over hang

some really intricate carvings on it as well

But the cared figures are just something else

 Considering they are 700 years of they have survived well especially when you consider most rood screens were demolished in the reformation 

 

The chancel side if more plain

 

 But you can still see some intricate carvings on it

The one stained glass panel is in the east window

You can also see a couple of memorial in the chancel near the altar

A very nice funerary hatchment in the nave near the rood screen

plus a few more memorials

I think this is an harmonium they use as there is no organ

at the back a curtained are is the vestry

with some really beautiful carvings on it

I suspect it was the box pew for the churchwarden mentioned on it

The font looks out of place being it looks newer that the rest of the church

You will find this in the porch

I will leave you with this photo of a cross I posted earlier in the post, I noticed it has some intricate carvings on it. The cross is made of wood from what I could see and the top is rotting away which is a shame because this one is worth preserving

Till next time have a peaceful weekend

Happy Halloween

St Matthew Llanewedd

 

This week I am doing a return visit to a church I wrote about back in 2015 St Matthew Llanewedd. Since then I have stopped off many times in the hope it would be open to no avail. This time I noticed the carved angel by the church sign so parked nearby and went to check, it was open. The photo's were taken on my iphone and I might add just after I started a group of really young children came in with there teachers and I had to work around them being careful not to tread on any

 The church itself dates back to the 14th century and has a 14th century tower on it. It was heavily restored in 1877 and is an example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture.

The carved angle who looked rather foreboding to me

A yew tree partly hides the church on the north side

The south side is more visible though I did take this photo as a pano with my iphone hence the curve

The gate on the porch was open a good sign, take note of the angles on it

The carving here looks more like Gandalf than a monk I presume it is meant to be

Gandalf's face

More angles hang over the door, there is also an inscription either side which is not easy to read

Walking in I could not help he overwhelmed by angles everywhere and just after this a little voice spoke and scared the like out of me. Reverend Linda was sat down out of sight behind me and told me all about the angles in the church. She did asked me to guess but I could not begin to think how many there could be

Most of the little angles you see were made by the children of the school across the road

they were everywhere in the nave

the chancel including the large one on the altar they made

It looked quiet impressive looking back down towards the nave. The stained glass window is by Clayton & Bell

The pulpit had them on it as well

I did manage a quick shot of the nave from it

one the partition of the nave and chancel the panels have carved angles on it certainly carved a  long time ago

The stained glass was some of the nicest I have seen.Reverend Linda asked if I knew who made it all I could say is it looked Victorian

and from what I could find out were made by by Burlison & Grylls

This one I thought stood out

The font I was pleased to find out is 15th century

A couple pictures of angles

These are right of the door in the south wall

The church organ

Which is in the north aisle

one the north wall in the aisle the roll of honour with a single name Cyril Evens a Lieutenant in the RAF, he was 19

There are a couple more memorial plaques you can see in the nave

Rather nice carved eagle lectern

A last panoramic view of the church taken from the pulpit

 On the way out I noticed this headstone I had not seen the last time the carving on it I thought unusual

 

Turning around I took a final view of the church

Till next time have a peaceful weekend