DisgrifiadSt Clydwen's Church was a parish church of the Deanery of Carmarthen during the medieval period. By the fourteenth century it was a posession of the medieval priory of St Clears (NPRN 275712). After the priory's dissolution the advowson fell to the Crown, but subsequently found its way into private patronage. An incised stone (NPRN 304271), decoarted with a wheel-cross, is located in the churchyard. In the seventeenth century another stone was noted lying on the chancel floor. It is noted that a number of prehistoric or early Christian monuments have been re-used as part of teh church fabric. One, located at the base of the west wall, is over 2m in length and has a groove running along its length. Another stone is thought to bear cupmarks. A rectory, some 220m to the north-west, is depicted on 1907 Ordnance Survey mapping, although it is not visible on the 1889 edition.
The church is a Grade II listed building, constructed of limestone rubble. It consists of three-bayed nave, two-bayed chancel, south porch and south vestry.
It is thought that there may also have been a component north of the nave. There is a floored-over void underneath the nave, chancel and vestry. The nave is thought to date to the thirteenth-fourteenth century, and a horizontal roof crease in its east wall may represent a former lean-to chancel. The(current) chancel dates to the fourteenth-fifteenth century. the square limestone font with cylindrical stem dates from the fourteenth century. There was one bell in the sixteenth century. The vestry is thought to date to the early nineteenth century. The church was restored in 1892, when the porch, vestry and bellcote were added. The church was also re-roofed, re-floored and re-fenestrated at that time.
Sources include:
Cambria Archaeology, 2000, Carmarthenshire Churches, gazetteer, 48
Ordnance Survey, 1889, first edition 25in
Ordnance survey, 1907, second edition 25in
N Vousden, RCAHMW, 6 December 2012