Church of St Mary, Abbey Cwmhir (Abaty Cwm-hir), Powys

History

Built 1865-6 by J.W. Poundley, Montgomeryshire county surveyor, and David Walker, architect of Liverpool, replacing an earlier C17 church. The main benefactor was Miss Mary Philips, for whose family the architects also designed the adjacent Hall.

Exterior

A parish church based on French High-Gothic style, comprising nave with lower and narrower chancel, S porch-tower with spire, NE organ chamber with sacristy, and NW vestry. Walls are snecked rock-faced stone with red sandstone banding. Red sandstone is also used to create patterned arch heads. The slate roof has 3 bands of lighter grey slates and iron finials to the chancel and organ chamber, and is behind coped gables on moulded kneelers. Cast iron rainwater goods are partly original. One rainwater head to the N side bears the date 1866.

The 2-stage porch-tower has set-back E and W buttresses. The S entrance has one order of broad ringed nook shafts with crocket capitals, and a stilted 2-centred arch with roll moulding and a tympanum with sculpture of the Ascension in high relief. Inside the porch is a double-chamfered segmental-pointed nave S doorway with boarded door and strap hinges. The S and E tower walls have 2-light belfry openings with red sandstone colonettes and crocket capitals, cusped plate tracery, and louvres. Above the tower the freestone spire turns octagonal and is broken by a belvedere with squat broad colonettes, above which is a cornice of punched decoration. Lucarnes in the cardinal directions have similar decoration, and the spire is further enriched with 2 bands of shallow arcaded frieze.

Nave and chancel have geometrical bar tracery. The W window is 3-light with cusped wheel tracery. The nave S wall has a single-light window to the L of the tower, and a 2-light and 1-light window to the R. The nave has buttresses at each end. The chancel has a 2-light S window with red sandstone colonnette. The E end has a polygonal apse with single-light NE and SE windows, and higher 2-light E window under a gablet. The N organ chamber has a hipped roof, boarded E door with strap hinges, external N stack reduced to eaves level, and W window under a shouldered lintel. The nave N wall has a 2-light window to the L, then a buttress, 1-light and 2-light windows, and gabled N vestry, which has a pair of pointed lights in its gable end.

Interior

The nave has a 4-bay roof with scissor trusses with posts carried on foliage-enriched corbels. The ceiling is plastered between the rafters. The elaborate 2-centred chancel arch has short polished granite shafts on foliage-enriched corbels, crocket capitals, continued as an impost band, and 2 orders of roll mouldings. The inner order has a painted inscription. The arch is spanned by a rood beam. A stone screen base has a brass plaque commemorating the consecration of the church in 1866. In the NW corner of the nave a boarded vestry door is under a shouldered lintel.

The chancel has a boarded polygonal wagon roof with moulded ribs and cornice. On the N side is a segmental pointed arch to the organ chamber, with painted inscription. Its R-hand respond has a polished granite shaft on a high freestone base, and crocket capital. To its R is a doorway to a former small sacristy behind the organ, which is recessed in a pointed opening with blank tympanum and enriched shouldered lintel. The organ chamber has a polygonal boarded ceiling with moulded ribs.

The chancel floor is laid with decorative tiles. The sanctuary has a dado of decorative tiles and Caen stone reredos in C13 French style. Its gabled central panel has finials and depicts the Last Supper in high relief. Outer Venetian-style mosaic panels depict the Agnus Dei and Pelican of Piety. The panels are framed by squat marble shafts and crocket capitals. On the N side is an aumbry with arched head and low-relief cross to the tympanum. On the SE side is a window seat.

The round freestone font has a contemporary wooden cover with ironwork. An inscription band around the bowl, broken by roundels with low relief crosses in the cardinal directions, reads in raised letters: 'Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of Heaven'. It stands on a central and 4 detached shafts with crocket capitals, and a square base. Pews have shaped ends. The freestone polygonal pulpit has ringed shafts and lower-relief diaper panels. Choir stalls have open arcaded fronts and ends with stylised poppy heads. The communion rail has iron uprights with elaborate scroll brackets, and wooden rail.

Near the W end of the nave S wall is a grave slab of c1200 with foliated cross commemorating 'Mabli', an abbot of Cwmhir, excavated from the abbey in 1824-5. The nave W wall has a tablet to Sir Hans Fowler (d 1771), a marble inscription tablet in a surround with cartouche to the apron. To its L is a wall tablet to Thomas Fowler comprising a marble sarcophagus with inscription (the date illegible) on a slate background, designed by Bacon of London and made by S. Manning. The nave N wall has a World War I memorial plaque. In the E wall of the nave, on the S side of the chancel arch, is a brass plaque to George Philips (d 1886) of The Hall.

Glass in the chancel is by Heaton Butler & Bayne in Pre-Raphaelite style. The E window depicts the Crucifixion and Resurrection, with Christ in Majesty in the tracery lights. It is flanked by Christ as the Good Shepherd and Christ as the Light of the World. The S window shows the Baptism of Christ and the Agony in the Garden. The W window is by Clayton & Bell. It depicts the Nativity, the boy Jesus at the Temple and the Last Supper in the main lights. In the wheel tracery are the 12 Apostles and Mary Magdalene. N and S windows in the nave have coloured tracery lights.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade II* for its architectural interest as an especially accomplished C19 Gothic Revival church with fine interior detail. The church forms a pair with the adjacent and contemporary Hall, and makes an important contribution to the historic character of the village.

External Links

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