This week the Church Explorer start his epic tour of some Welsh and Hereford churches with a visit to St Martin, Cwmyoy a church which seems to defy the laws of nature and deceives your eyes. I must admit after seeing photos of it many years ago I thought I would visit but thought it was up in the hills no where near where I stayed. After Codlinsandcream2 mention it was near Caple y Fin I realised I had driven right past the church on my way home that day so my map was duly marked for a return. It's the wonkiest church I have visited. One word of warning, there are two ways to the village and on the day I visited the road was closed to Caple y Fin so I took the first road which too me uphill and down dale along a narrow road which in my Swift Sport was looking a bit doggy in places, It was not until I left that I realised I should have taken the second road which was shorter and much better to drive on.
Cwmyoy is best known for St Martin's Church, a stone parish church standing on a steep hillside on the east side of the valley and which has been subject to slippage. It has been called the "most crooked church in Great Britain." Local historian Fred Hando (1958) calls it "the Church below the Landslide" and describes the chancel
as "a remarkable example of a weeping chancel... the nave represents
our Lord's body, and the deflected chancel His head fallen sideways in
death." He notes that the whole chancel, not just its axis, is out of
line, suggesting it was intentionally built this way and is not the
result of the slippage
Not only that it goes up and down
From the path at the top of the churchyard
South of the church with a wide angle
Wide again from the wall which is not far from the church
The tower with buttress
The buttresses
The tower and buttresses
Looking along the north side
East end with the churchyard
South east from the footpath
Priest door up the steps
South side of the tower
The churchyard path
If you follow it from the gate you can read it was laid in memory of Mark Gibbons
South west view taken in wide because of the closeness of it to the wall behind me
The bench is near the wall
North east view across the churchyard
Churchyard north of the church
Looking east
West along the south side
View towards Gospel pass
North west end
Looking east along the north side
Towards the main entrance from the village
To the preaching cross remains
I had to crop the cross from the above photo
Collage of the churchyard
Couple of memorials on the porch
Memorial to Joan
Collage of the other plaques in the porch
Word of warning, the photos might look a bit disorientated but that is because the place was and felt quite odd walking around in there, there is also little lighting I could see and it was quite dark that day
The nave looking towards the chancel arch, you can see how out of level the chancel and east window
Makes your head want to twist to see the window
The altar is raised no doubt to take out the uneven floor
Altar table and east window
Looking to the back which seems to turn to the right
The pulpit does not look so old
In the tower base
Ceiling, though I do not know if there are any bells up there
25 quid was a lot back then I doubt it would get much now
Looking out of the tower arch shows how twisted the church is
Some of the windows in the church, no stained glass
This south window has memorials around it
Both of the memorials left to the Williams family
No clue on this coat of alms, it just looked quiet old
Memorials in the chancel
Most of them dark and hard to read
Couple more memorials of different centuries, the bottom one to A rev Lewis Lewis
Couple of commemoration plaques about the restoration of the chruch
Collage of memorials
I think this was the oldest tomb in the church
These from the 1800's
This lead to an alcove with a stove and what looked like steps
The de-laminated parts of a headstone
The cross lights up when you walk in the church, it looks older than Norman, preaching cross top?
Round font most likely Norman
Few more photos of the church, looking down the nave
The chancel arch
Altar cross and east window
Last looking back through the chancel arch
I will leave you with these two characters, Mario and Yoshi and I have played that game in the past
Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week
