St Owain's church is located at the south end of the vilage of Ystradowen, off a lane to the west side of Cowbridge Road (A4222), and set in a churchyard used as a cemetery. It was built in 1865-8 to designs of John Prichard in a late thirteenth-century style as a perfect replica of the previous medieval church which was demolished completely. It is constructed of local blue lias limestone rubble, carefully coursed and squared, with Bath stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. It consists of nave, narrower and lower chancel, gabled south porch, west tower and small north vestry with a tall medieval style chimney and gabled meeting room attached. The tower is of two stages with battered base and gabled roof. Inside, the original patterned brick walls have been painted out. Roofs are of arch-braced collar beam type, three-bay to nave and two-bay to chancel. Chancel and tower arches are plain, chamfer dying into the jamb. Fittings include octagonal font with pinnacled cover under the tower, which apparently comes from Llanbradach and therefore is from 1896-7. The east window is attractive with grissaile, and a blood red disc to each light intended to pick up the polychrmy in the walls.
Sources:
Extracts from Cadw Listing description.
Google Street View, April 2011.
J.Newman, Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (1995), p.650-1.

RCAHMW, 2 June 2015