St Teilo's Church, Llandeloy, is a redundant church in the village of

Llandeloy Llandeloy ( cy, Llan-lwy) is a small village and parish in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales. Together with the parishes of Brawdy and Llanreithan, it constitutes the community of Brawdy, which had a census population of 611 in 2001. Location Lla ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

, Wales, dedicated to

Saint Teilo Saint Teilo ( la, Teliarus or '; br, TeliauWainewright, John. in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', Vol. XIV. Robert Appleton Co. (New York), 1912. Accessed 20 July 2013. or '; french: Télo or '; – 9 February ), also known by his ...

. It has been designated by

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...

as a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

History

The church probably originated in the 12th century, and later served as the village school. However, by the 1840s it was a ruin. It was rebuilt in 1926–27 from the ruins, and was designed by the architect John Coates Carter. The design followed

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

principles, that is, to use the simplest available local materials, without attempting to copy the style of any particular period. After the church was closed in 2002, it was taken into the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

Architecture

Exterior

St Teilo's is constructed in stone rubble with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. It has a "humble exterior". At the west end is a double-arched

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

. Its plan consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

, with a south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

. The chancel inclines slightly to the right. The west window is "tiny". In the north wall of the nave is an arched doorway and a long window, and in the south wall are two square-headed windows. At the east end is a single pointed window. In the north wall of the chancel is a long narrow window and the south wall has two square-headed windows. In the transept are two long

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s on the south wall. All the windows have rough (not

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

) jambs.

Interior

The interior is "beautiful and evocative". It is long and low, with exposed stone walls. The

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

with its loft dominates the interior. The loft has a carving of the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

on its front. In the angle between the rood screen and the north wall is a simple three-sided

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

. The loft is reached by a stairway in the north wall. In the nave, the pews are simple, with open backs. There are two stone fonts. One is built from ancient stones found during the excavation carried out before the church was rebuilt. The other is octagonal, standing on three steps. The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

consists of a rectangular wooden panel painted in gesso and coloured with tempera. Its frame is elaborately carved. Also in the church are a stoup, and a pair of piscinas carved from slate. The stained glass in the east window and in the transept date from about 1926, and that in the nave south windows from about 1936.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llandeloy, Saint Teilos Church Grade II listed churches in Pembrokeshire Former churches in Wales Arts and Crafts architecture in Wales Rustic architecture Churches completed in 1927 Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches