DescriptionSt John's church is located in a prominent position on the north-east side of New Church Street in Cefn Coed-y-Cymmer. It was built in 1870 to designs of G.E.Robinson and was known as the Swiss church for its slated spire. The vestry and organ chamber were added after 1922.
The church is constructed of distinctive stonework in crazed rubble with bands of thin stones at sill and impost levels, rock-faced sandstone quoins, and ashlar windows, under steep slate roofs. It comprises nave, lower chancel, steeply-gabled south porch, south-east tower with slated spire and north gabled organ-chamber with vestry. The tower, attached to the chancel, is of three stages with high battered base.
Inside, the walls are of pale brick with thin decorative bands of red brick and encaustic tile, and alternating buff and white voussiors to windows and chancel arch. The open roofs of thin arch-braced collar trusses rest on short, grey granite colonnettes. Fittings include an ashlar octagonal font on an octagonal shaft, an ornate brass eagle lectern (post-1895), oak Gothic reredos (1918), and Gothic panelled pulpit (post-1922). Stained glass includes works by Wippell & Co of Exeter (post-1936), Mayer of Munich (?, post 1884), and Celtic Studios (1984).
In the porch is an early Christian inscribed stone.
Sources:
Extracts from Cadw Listing description; J.Newman, Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (1995), p.318-9.
RCAHMW, 6 May 2015