A long narrow building consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and western tower with battlement and four small crocketed pinnacles.

Fragments of painted plaster above the pulpit were described by C.N. Johns in 1968, and further discoveries were made in 1981 by Dylan Roberts. Tese included fragments of decorative plaster on the east wall of the chancel and traces of red and black pigment on the south wall of the nave:

[1] Black-letter inscription in frame - Palimpsest painting on N respond of chancel arch, W face:
[1] Upper layer, fragmentary black letter text (unidentified) with contemporary red border. Probably 16th-17th C.
[2] Lower layer, oxide red border with inner line, subject and date unknown.
[3] E wall of nave, above chancel arch, traces of red and black line work.
[4] S wall of nave, E end: traces of red and black below window-sill level; subject unknown, but probably the original decoration, on sized plaster directly over the stonework.

Source:
Notes by A.J. Parkinson and D.J. Roberts,1981. 2004.04.06/RCAHMW/SLE
RCAHMW Wallpaintings Database. 2004.09.14/RCAHMW/SLE
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021).

RCAHMW 2021

Site Record

St Ilan's Church, Eglwysilan