St Mary the Virgin, Llanywern, Breconshire Dedication: St Mary the Virgin Denomination: Anglican Built: 14th century Minor rebuilding: 17th Century Photography: John Ball Date: 20 November 2019 Camera: Canon IXUS 115 H5 digital compact

Above: southwestern aspect of St Mary's Church

It says something for the territory when the names of two neighbouring villages Llangors and Llanywern, are variations on the phrase "the church in the bog". But while Llangors at its green village centre looks well-drained and comfortable, Llanywern, at least in the wetter months, is exactly what it says on the label.
   From here the line of the Black Mountains coming down towards the Wye looks like a high tide of falling waves. Small eddies of streams pour in along the lanesides, running into a spreading, reedy pond spiked with tall bulrushes, then out again to curl around the ancient churchyard, and ooze and squelch across it until saturation. Pools of damp seep up into the nave from under the flagstones. Services once held in the mire of an earthen floor – and burials here – can be only queasily imagined.
   Llanywern is as simple a rural church as survives in Wales. Its pleasures are of atmosphere, of ancient community and irregular vernacular, in which it is still totally immersed. It harks back to sixth century St Cynidr, and to four hundred years looked after by the monks of Brecon, whose sub-prior had a house here. A cluster of four farms immediately around it seem unchanged over centuries, their traditional stone barns the homes of small gatherings of jackdaws and collared doves. It is a church filled with birdsong... [read full text here]

Note 1: The Church Bells of Breconshire, by John C Eisel, Logaston Press, Almeley, Herefordshire, 2002
"An enclosed west bell-turret. No means of access is provided through the nave roof or the exterior of the turret, which is slated. Despite several visits the bell remains unexamined (3 Jul 1976 - 17 Nov 2000)."

Note 2: The Old Parish Churches of Mid Wales by Mike Salter, Folly Publications, Malvern, Worcestershire, 2003
"A west porch admits to a 14^th century single chamber with a scissor-truss roof and a ribbed east end canopy of circa 1500. The church still has oil lamps and is almost unrestored. It has an old stoup and a 13^th century circular font."

Right: The plan shows the long axis of St Mary's Church aligned roughly southwest-northeast rather than west-east [adapted from Salter 2003]. The Google satellite image at the bottom of the page confirms this unusual orientation.

Note 3: The Buildings of Wales: Powys, by Robert Scourfield and Richard Haslam, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2013
"Very small and scarcely touched in the 19^th Century, the interior still lit by oil lamps (shown above), west porch, 14^th century nave and short chancel. Slated bellcote. Chancel south window a 14^th century ogee trefoiled lancet; nave south window a simple square with chamfered jambs, 17^th century. Otherwise simple windows of 1882. The porch is 17^th or 18^th century, with round-headed voussoired doorway. Flagged floors. The nave has a scissor-rafter roof perhaps 14^th century. The chancel has a ribbed canopy of circa 1500 (see below); traces of red paint overthe site of thew rood. 17^th century penelling at the east end, dated 1657. FONT: circular and rounded; 13^th century. MONUMENTS: 17^th century slabs in the chancel, with typical carved crosses, elaborate heraldry and marginal inscriptions. Charles Havard d.1774, by Powell of Talgarth. Trumpeting angel: Margaret Price d.1777. Shaped tablet. Morgan Jenkins d.1785, by Hughes. Crude urn and the usual rustic droplets and scrolls. Thomas Williams d. 1828, also by Hughes."

Note 4: A History of the County of Brecknock, by Theophilus Jones; Glanusk Edition, Volume IV, published by the Brecknock Society, 1930
"The church-yard is so wet that frequently in winter the graves are filled with water soon after they are dug up; this many of the inhabitants complain of as a dreadful grievance, and seem to feel a chill at the mention of it, and to apprehend consequences injurious to their bodies deposited here, whereasif they would only take the trouble of digging a trench or gutter of the depth of two or three yards at furthest round the upper or western side of the churchyard, they might all moulder dryly, comfortably and snugly together!"