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St David's Church, Glascwm

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NPRN400392
Map ReferenceSO15SE
Grid ReferenceSO1559053150
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPowys
Old CountyRadnorshire
CommunityGlascwm
Type Of SiteCHURCH
PeriodPost Medieval
Description

St David's Church is situated within a curvilinear enclosure, its south side bounded by a road leading to and from the nearby settlement. The churchyard enclosure is on a north-facing slope, with the Clas Brook running from east to west alongside another road some 60m north of the churchyard. The church is thought to occupy the site of an earlier 'Clas' foundation, which may date to the sixth century. The church was referred to in documents of 1090. In the 1180s, Gerald of Wales noted that a handbell kept in the church had miraculous powers. He noted that the bell supposedly belonged to St David and was known as a 'bangu'.

The church was referred to in documents of 1291, when it was valued at the relatively high figure of £13 6s 8d. In 1905 it was noted that Colva and Rhulen were annexed chapelries. The churchyard's main entrance is on its east side, with a wider gate in its western boundary. A scarp bank is visible within the churchyard, to the north and west (where it is surmounted by yews) of the church building. The bank is thought to delineate the former boundary of an earlier or inner enclosure. There is a spring some 70m to the south-east of the south-eastern churchyard boundary. Numerous earthworks, thought to represent medieval settlement remains, have been noted in the vicinity of the church, including in the field between the church and the current settlement. There is a building platform to the north of the church and at least two others to the south. The Yat (NPRN 81234), a seventeenth-century former gentry-house, is situated to the immediate south-west of the churchyard enclosure. A Baptists' burial ground and former baptistery (NPRN 420071), belonging to the Yat, is situated to the immediate south of the churchyard, seperated by the road. A former corn mill, Ty-gwyn Mill (NPRN 40292), is situated some 150m to the north-west of the church. It is thought to have been constructed in the eighteenth century and is depicted as the disused 'Clase Mill' on historic (1889) Ordnance Survey mapping. The current settlement nucleus lies some 150m to the east-north-east of the church. It is here that the Vicarage is located.

The church, constructed of rubble-stone, consists of nave and chancel, south porch and western bellecote. The nave is thirteenth century in date. The chancel was added in the fifteenth century. The font is also thought to be fifteenth-century in date. The nave roof is constructed of fifteenth-century timbers and its eastern-most bay is wagon-roofed. An eighteenth-century painted tombstone was noted in 1972. In 1870 wooden panelling was noted in the location of the former rood loft. The church was restored in 1891, when the church was refloored and a heating system installed. Oak choir stalls were also added. A plaque on the west wall records the enclosure of Llandegley Rhos Common in 1885. A plaque on the east wall records the enclosure of Cefn Drawen, also in 1885.

Sources include:
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, 1999, Ceredigion Churches, gazetteer, 48
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, Historic Settlements Survey - Radnorshire
Ordnance Survey, 1889, first edition 25in
Ordnance Survey, modern, 1:10,000
Thorpe, L, 2004, Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021)

RCAHMW 2021