St David’s, Llanddewi Fach

 

For many years now I have been trying to visit all the churches on a website called Builth Churches as a tribute to the person who made it Phil Jones. I had been in contact with Phil  via email many times over photos I had posted. After he passed away I discovered his website while looking for churches to visit in Wales. I found I had visited a lot of them so my quest to visit them all started. If you look at the link you will find some of the churches in black, these are ones he never got around to visiting or posting to his website. This was one of them. There is no history on the church I could find on Wikipediea and the best I could find was on the CPAT website  so rather that me cutting and pasting like I do with Wiki I would suggest you click on the link fro more info. I might add finding this church has eluded me for a while I use OS mapping to find the place I want and Llanddewi Fach does not show up in Powes. After using Google maps as well I finally located the church on a hillside in the middle of nowhere

It does not look far in this photo

 

But when you look from the gate it's a good bit further, the nearest house is to my left 

 

 

Looking over the churchyard wall

 

Inside the churchyard looking west
 

 

The north side is  just access, to the left is the hillside

 

 

The east end
 

 

Looking to the west end, not photo looking at it because no room

The churchyard to the south of the church

 

Headstones at the south west end hidden by the shade of the trees

 

Looking back east

The headstones here are right on the edge of the churchyard

 

 

Taken with my iphone

 

This is right at the end of the west end, to the right are a few graves and a lot of undergrowth
 

 

Old but still standing

 

The only tall monument in the churchyard

 

East again

This is to show the huge yew tree that shades everything by the church

Collage of some of the tombs in the churchyard

The porch which is almost hidden by the yew behind me

Inside looks a typical country church

The chancel arch

Through the arch to the altar

Altar and east window

Looking back through the church

Pulpit along with lectern

From the pulpit looking down on the pews

Collage of items in the church

In the church you might notice it is lit by candles, I did find a light switch but I think it was for the porch, not even sure the light worked

Collage showing the Clerics Trail and there is A4 paper with some of Kilverts book typed up on them. The picture to the bottom right shows the church with no trees around it shading it like it is now

There are a couple of memorials you can find

The font with is most likely Victorian

The nave from the chancel

Oil lamp and candles light the church

 

I will leave you there with a photo of the flowers behind the altar, I might add they are artificial 

Till next time I wish you all a wonderful weekend

The Clerics Trail

Over the past few weeks I have been struggling to find what to write in the Church Explorer and though at first I was republishing early blogs or at least highlighting them for you to visit it did not seem right. I did manage to write on trust which look after churches and even managed to come up with some new posts on chapels I had not written about in this blog. The last resort will be using the two churches I have to write on yet as I thought they could start things going when this crisis ends.

The other day I was left a message on one of my older blogs. It concerned a person called the Rev Frances Kivert who wrote a book called Kilvert's Diary which I have just started reading on Kindle. The person who left the message said Kivert had visited the church. I found this interesting as I have visited a few churches he had been to and tagged them with The Clerics Trail. I remembered seeing a poster advertising the trail and showing the churches, it gave me an idea for a blog so in this one I will show you the churches from the trail I have visited. I do intend to visit more when I go back to Wales again mind you there are 20 on the list to see. What I will say after reading around 20% is that Kivert was Vicar at Clyro and use to radius out to the various places and churches he visited sometimes walking others going by pony and trap 

 

 

Google map of the Churches Kilvert visited. I have not included the ones I have come across in Oxfordshire

 

 St Cewydd Aberedw
which is situated along the Wye Valley outside Builth Wells. I have visited it a couple of times as it is not far from where I stay in my Caravan.  The poster above is what you see inside the porch as you go in.The first place mentioned in the book is Clyro so this is a fair way from that place, I could not tell you at the moment if he ministered here or just preached. The church it's self is very nice and has links to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was killed in the woods nearby

St David Colva
Was mentioned in the first part I am reading, Kivert walked here from Clryo to get a few songs from a fellow there and they had to be sent by post in the end again I do not know if he did anything other that preach here

St Peters Llanbedr
 Described by Kivert as a Ruin it now looks like a typical country church though a little out of the way on it's own. I seem to remember one Vicar having to pay the local vagrants and people a farthing to attend church and one tramp had to be thrown out for cooking in there

St Teilos Llandeilo Graban

  A church in the hills above the Wye and and even further from the First church mentioned, a long church with a little history. You will find a WWI grave cross in the church a memorial to Second Lieutenant J Willaims Vaughan who  worshipped at the church

St Mary Newchurch 

Built around 1400 and restored in in 1856 there are few features that remain from the early time, it stands not far from the Offas Dyke Path and has a welcome for walkers who come by in that you can have tea and coffee. On my visit a group were eating their lunch in the church. Kivert used to walk here from Clyro to teach though how he worded the paragraph seemed dubious.

 

St Andrews Bredwardine
This was the last church that Kivert was vicar here till his death in 1877 aged 38 he is also buried here. I have not been to visit the church yet but home to do so. In the meantime I suggest you look at the link to the blog written by Codlinsand cream who has been there Those are the only churches I have visited so far but no doubt when I get a chance I will visit more.
Till Next time Have a nice weekend and Stay Safe

St Michael St Michael on Arrow

I found this church while looking on the Ordnance survey mapping I have on my laptop, I had been looking at the last two places I visited and noticed a road going East from Newchurch towards the Welsh Boarder and nearly missed the small cross marking the church. St Michael on Arrow is only a short distance from the boarder with England. Parts of the church date back to the 13th Century though most of it was restored in the 19th century. A more detailed history can be found on the CPAT website

The walk to the church is a long grass path through the churchyard

You walk between  fenced off  graves which are either side

Above the porch and tower which is one of the more unusual ones I have seen with a North to South roof on it

The walls of which have lancet windows on

Above the North side with vestry and Right the East end wall of the chancel, not often you see no window.

The tower for some reason reminds me of a barn

Right the South side of the church

Enter the church through the porch

Found the nave quite dark for my Compact

Above nice to see a screen that looked very old

Left inside the chancel

The altar with altar cross and candles

Plastic covered the cloth on the altar

Left  a rear view of the screen

In the chancel is a nice stained glass window of the Good Shepherd


Right a seated window

Behind the Choir stalls is a very nice stained glass

Above the pulpit

with the view down the nave from it

Above the font which does not look older than 19th century

Memorial to Hugh Lloyd

There are a few memorials in the church  like Thomas Mainwaring here on the right

Above a tomb slab which is in the nave

Left a painting of the Last Supper

Outside you can look around the churchyard though you need to get over the chicken wire fencing there

















Most of the headstones are quite old

With a few tombs on the East end lost in the ferns growing there

The odd monument is also found in the churchyard

This is the right hand side you see walking North up to the church

and the left, I am looking South down from the church

Another monument in better condition

I will leave you with this prayer I took on the way out.

Till Next time take care and have a peaceful weekend