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Description
Denomination: Anglican
Dedication: St David
Built: 13/14th century (chancel & nave)
Restored: 1905
Photography: Gill Thomas
Date: 20 July 2012
Camera: Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G2 digital
Website: www.whowhatwhereresearch.com
Image 1:
St Issel's and its graveyard, viewed from the northwest.
Note 1: St David's church, Manordeifi is a stone-built medieval church on an ancient site dedicated to St David. It consists of a chancel and nave, with a stone gable-bellcote and porch at the west end and a later vestry on the north side of chancel. There are some 14th century Early-English mullioned windows in the chancel south wall and an early square-bowl font ornamented with quatrefoils. By 1899 a new church had been consecrated, built on a hill nearby clear of the flood plain, and the old church declined until its recent restoration in 1905 and again 1948-73. The box-pews remain (see below); two which are taller with fluted columns at angles and plainer box-pews of various dates in between and then two larger pews fitted with fireplaces. [Sources: CADW listed buildings database; Wales's Best One Hundred Churches, by T. J. Hughes, Poetry Wales Press Ltd., 2006]
Image 2:
Nave of St David's Church, showing box pews.
Note 2: The old church of Manordeifi was taken on by the Friends of Friendless Churches in 2000, following its closure. It is listed Grade II* and survives as a rare example of an unaltered 'pre-ecclesiology' interior. The chancel and nave date from the 13th or 14th century, the west porch being slightly later. The building was modified in the 18th century, and retains fittings from that time including a full set of box pews, the easternmost with fireplaces to warm their occupants, the westernmost slightly raised and decorated with fluted columns. Even counting the benches this does not substantiate the claim that in 1813 the church could seat a thousand people! Significant repairs to the roof were started in the Autumn of 2011. [Source: Friends of Friendless Churches website, where further details are available]
Image 3:
The coracle in the porch was used to help the congregation cope when the river Teifi flooded the adjacent water meadows.
Further images and notes are available in my Webpage Archive
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