St Afan's Church, Llanafan Fawr

 

Back to church bothering again, having been inspired by the Vicar's tales of dastardly forbears on Friday night.  Plus - notice - it was DRY! with blue skies, but very cold first thing, and when I went out to the car, I had ice on the inside of the windows too which when I scraped it off, fell like snow!

I had a lovely cross country drive to this church (which is about 8 miles from home, much less as the crow flies).  The lanes were well marked, but the Romans had got there before me . . .

There are two stretches of Sarn Helen (which automatically says Romans to me, from my degree days).  One is North-South, from Aberconwy to Carmarthen, and nearer the coast, whilst the other stretch (East-West) is between Neath and Brecon.  This one is marked Roman Road on my map and comes up from Beaulah, pencil straight, and then on to Glandulas, and then it has a short stretch of what is footpath now, ending at Sarn Helen. (It will have come from the Roman camp at Llandovery). Beyond that there is a Roman Camp and stretch of Roman Road above Rhayader near St Harmon, and I will assume that it goes on to the Cambrian Mountains where there are lead and silver mines. I think this Sarn Helen is a hamlet of the name, close to the old road.

Inside the porch, the original stoup survived.  I am a clot for not looking this one up in my Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones etc (Vol. 1) BEFORE I went, as then I would have been aware of the porch containing several elements of the original much earlier church - the site harks back to the 6th/7th Centuries and St Afan is buried here to the S-E of the church.  To the right of the stoup is one of the earlier relics of the original church, a sort of leaf shaped pattern, though it is described as a cross with a herringbone pattern, and this design can be compared with decorated Irish slabs from Rathmichael and Ballyman, Co. Dublin.  The Irish influence is to be seen in churches across Mid-Wales from St Dogmael's Abbey (where there is a lovely collection of ECM's) and being celebrated by the Irish kings settling in Llangorse, where they had crannogs in the lake there (9th-10th C).  King Brychan, from whom Breconshire got its name, and who fathered a quite amazing number of children who all became Saints (of course!) in Wales and Cornwall.  But I digress . . .

A plain and simple church internally, having been rebuilt (and smaller) in the 1880s.  The roots of the church go back to the 7th - 9th C.

There was a whopping organ, so they clearly put a great emphasis on hymn singing in this church, although the parish would appear to be fairly sparsely occupied.

A clearly Victorian crisply-worked font.

There were several Price memorials (it was a Thomas Price who was murdered).  I noted that their son died in Whitechapel, Middlesex and so perhaps they were not so parochial as many in the area.

A rather odd affair holding up the roof.  Not a clue as to the architectural term for this design.  Any idea, Billy Blue-Eyes?

  

Here's what put a smile on my face.  This may have been found embedded in the church wall during its restoration in 1887.  However, according to a chap called Rodger (surname) this stone was at Llaneleu.  I assume this is the Llaneleu near Talgarth - again, an Irish stronghold, and King Brychan, his 3 wives, and 24 sons and 24 daughters (said he was prolific) lived in Talgarth in the 5th C.  Again, there are design similarities with crosses in a group of grave slabs from the Dublin area.

Plus a 13th C font.  So glad it survived.  Presumably in use until Victorian times when they upgraded.

In memory of the fallen of the parish . . .

Sundial on the tower (built 1765 but with medieval foundations).  The plaque reads:  "This church was rebuilt at the expense of this parish AD 1814.  Thos. Prichard, Wm. Jones, Churchwardens, John Davies, Undertaker."

I scoured the churchyard for sign of the little and large headstones, of the murderer and his victim, and this was probably them, but they were rendered illegible by generous coverings of lichen.  

One of the more unusual tombstones in the churchyard. 

 

Across the road, and sadly now permanently closed, is the ancient building which was a popular pub until Covid.  It dates from 1472 and has a cruck frame internally.  HERE is an excellent link which tells you anything I omitted, and has some super photographs.

Enjoy your Sunday.