Cylchgronau Cymru

MISCELLANEA LLANGADFAN PARISH CHURCH When the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments visited St. Cadfan's Church, Llangadfan, on 19 July 1910, their resultant report commented that: 'The roof is ceiled, hiding what are said to be 14th century oak timberings.'1 The parish records show that this ceiling was inserted during the major restoration carried out in 1867, when the gallery at the west end of the church was taken down and its dormer windows removed.2 Over recent years damp gradually loosened a patch of this ceiling at the west end until, in 1983, sufficient of it fell down to make replacement of a large portion essential. As a result it was possible to see some of the original oak timbering for the first time for 116 years, though it proved very difficult to illuminate and photographs were unsuccessful. The principal timberings comprise five, or possibly six, cusped trusses with wind braces, the main beams being some eighteen inches across with chamfered edges to the cusping. The accompanying rough sketch illustrates their pattern. Construction of this style of roof lasted from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century; and since the concentration in the north-east of the Principality of this type of cusping in early Welsh houses is also reflected in ecclesiastical work in 1 Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire; Inventory of the County of Montgomery, 1911. p.100., entry 510. 2For a sketch of the church before restoration see Mont: Coll: Vol: 2, p.333.