St Martin, Cwmyoy

 

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

One of the more popular vies of the church which shows its twisted shape

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

Inside 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

From the chance arch

The pulpit does not look so old

 

 

 View down from the pulpit

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