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Description
On its website, CPAT, the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, states:
"This small church a few miles to the north-east of Brecon is a medieval structure, a successor to a Norman edifice, with a late 19th Century tower. It contains a wealth of medieval and later fittings and is set in a sub-circular churchyard which in turn lies in a village that preserves more than the normal range of medieval relict earthworks."
[Source: http://www.cpat.demon.co.uk/projects/longer/churches/brecon/16858.htm]
Image 1:
St Bilo's Church, viewed from the southeast. Note the memorial stones attached high on the south wall, on the far right.
Image 2:
Sunlight streams through the ivy-framed window in the west wall of the porch.
The porch (shown above), with one original wall and two others rebuilt, is thought to date from the 15th century. It has a flagged floor and unplastered walls. Its 15th-century roof consists of six arch-braced collars and three transverse ribs. Some of the woodwork is a later replacement.
Image 3:
St Bilo's Church viewed from the southwest, showing its 19th-century bell tower. On the horizon are Breconshire's Black Mountains, forming the south side of the Wye Valley.
Image 4, 5:
The bell-tower, St Bilo's Church.
CPAT describes the tower as a squat and uninspiring rebuild of 1881, with a broach spire surmounted by a weathercock. Eisel (2002) indicates that the tower contains two bells hung for swing chiming; a treble bell cast in 1682 by Henry Williams of Glasbury or his predecessor, and a tenor bell recast in 1709 by the same Henry Williams. There was formerly a smaller bell cast at Worcester circa 1410. The bell cracked and is now preserved in the chancel. The bell frame in the tower is of medieval origin.
Image 6:
Shaded north wall of St Bilo's Church.
Image 7:
North aspect of the nave and tower.
Image 8:
Former priest's door in the north wall.
The former priest's door, shown above right, has reused a Norman period carved stone as its lintel (see detail Image 9), suggesting that an 11th- or 12th-century church once occupied the site. Later changes in the church layout have lead to the blocking of the door which is now partly below the present interior floor.
Image 10:
East wall of St Bilo's Church. Note the memorial slabs mounted on the wall each side of the east window.
Image 11:
Group of five old memorial stones mounted on the south wall of the church.
As the photographs illustrate, St Bilo's Church has a number of old memorial stones mounted on its south and east walls. On the next page, we examine in detail the inscriptions on eight of these memorial stones.
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