St Mary Capel Y Ffin

 

 This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Capel Y Ffin the last church on his tour of the Clerics Trail. After leaving Hay on Wye and missing the turn at first I found myself driving along narrow winding roads over the Black mountains in torrential rain missing the views of Gospel pass and the mountain top eventually going back downhill to come out at Capel Y Ffin. This is quite short blog due to the size of the church and I did not want ti linger getting wet in the churchyard.

 The name Capel-y-ffin is Welsh, and means "chapel of the boundary" since it lies in the valley of the River Honddu close to the boundary of the historical dioceses of St David's and Llandaf, now Swansea and Brecon and Monmouth. The chapel itself is dedicated to St Mary and was built in 1762, replacing an earlier 15th-century structure. It originally served as a chapel of ease for the parish church at Llanigon, but is now within its own ecclesiastical parish. With an interior of just 26 by 13 feet (8 by 4 metres), the chapel is one of the smallest in Wales^[2] and reminded diarist Francis Kilvert of an owl. 

When I got there so stood under the trees to get a few photos of the churchyard and did not go around the whole churchyard as it was raining heavy and the ground would have been soggy

Turning right to the east side

 

This looks like the base of a preaching cross

 

Zoomed in  one of the church

The doorway which is quite small so you need to duck down

Nice greeting to visitors and a warning to watch your head

First look from the door

The altar, east window and pulpit

The altar is small and I like the view from the window must be worth seeing on a nice day

"I will lift up mine eyes up into the hills from whence cometh my help"

I found it amazing it had a pulpit so here is the view from it

From the altar looking back

 

Up on the balcony looking down

 

 

Going over one side

 

The seating on the balcony 

I saw reference to this at St Mary Hay on Wye now I knew hat it was about

The font which is most likely 15th century or older

Churchyard from the porch

Last look at the church

Caple Y Ffin on a wet day

I'll leave you with a collage. 

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week