St David's Church Llywel

A Brief History of St David's Church Llywel

St David's church at Llywel lies in a small valley converging on the Usk valley about 1mile to the west of Trecastle. Though part of the tower may be earlier, the building is considered to be largely late 15thCentury and is of simple plan. Internally there are many delights to be seen and a warm friendly welcome is given to everyone.

A quick guide to what delightful features await you when you visit:

Our Vestry is home to a pre Norman font, our parish stocks and a large scale tithe map of the parish. We have two fantastic wooden screens, a 16thCentury Tudor one by the vestry and the chancel screen which was hand carved at Harry Hems workshop.

The church is also home to two stone pillars, the Aberhydfe Pillar Stone which dates to c5-6 and a cast of the Llywel Pillar Stone, the original is now in the British Museum as the carving date back to the 4thand 5thcentury.There is a lot of history attached to these stones and a written leaflet had been produced to tell their stories.

There is evidence that St David once had a Rood Loft as the stone stairs are still to be found on the other side of the door to the left of the pulpit.The Pulpit was carved in 1925 by the workshop of Harry Hems of Exeter and is incredibly detailed showing the figures of St David, St Padarn and St Teilo.

The Altar is again carved by Harry Hems workshop matching the screen and the pulpit, like the other items the altar shows some fantastic details when studied up close. Behind the altar is a Tiled Reredos which was installed in 1888, it is extremely colourful and shows the symbols of the four Evangelists.

This really is just a very brief insight into the wonders that await discovery at our church and we always look forward to seeing new faces at our events and open days when we endeavour to share these with others.