The Church of St Anno in Llananno,

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, Wales, is a

redundant Redundancy or redundant may refer to: Language * Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once Engineering and computer science * Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...

church dating from the 14th century. Its

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

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, o ...

is considered "one of the great treasures of Welsh craftsmanship". A

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, the church is now in the care of the

Friends of Friendless Churches Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As ...

History and description

The Church of St Anno stands beside the

River Ithon The River Ithon ( Welsh: Afon Ieithon) is a major left-bank tributary of the River Wye in Powys, mid Wales. It rises in the broad saddle between the western end of Kerry Hill and the hill of Glog to its west and flows initially southwards to L ...

on the edge of the village of Llananno. Of medieval origin, it was entirely rebuilt in 1876–1877 by David Walker, a Liverpool-based architect. Walker incorporated elements from the medieval church, including the 15th-century

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 ...

considers the screen as "the most richly decorated and one of the most complete in Wales". Scourfield and Haslam, in their ''Powys'' volume of the '' Buildings of Wales'' describe the "glorious creen asamong the best examples of screen-work in Wales”, and the best of the work of the Newton school of Welsh screen-carvers, and draw comparisons with similar screens at Newton itself, at

Llanegryn Llanegryn is a village and a community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It was formerly part of the historic county of Merionethshire (). It is located within Snowdonia () national park, south of the mountain range of the same name. Travelling by r ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, and at

Daresbury Daresbury is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 246. History The name means "Deor's fortification", derived from an Old English personal name and the word ''burh' ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. The screen was restored during the Walker restoration, and again in the 1960s. It comprises ten arches, with a centrally-placed archway, which support a large gallery with two

bressummer A bressummer, breastsummer, summer beam (somier, sommier, sommer, somer, cross-somer, summer, summier, summer-tree, or dorman, dormant tree) is a load-bearing beam in a timber-framed building. The word ''summer'' derived from sumpter or French ...

s (beams) above and below a central parapet carved with 25 figures of "Christ, Patriarchs, Kings and Prophets". The figures are 19th-century replacements. The bressummers themselves are carved with images of "fruit and foliage, the stems emerging from the mouths of serpents". The church itself is small and simple, constructed of grey

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

with a porch and modest

bell cote 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 ...

. St Anno's is a

, its Cadw record noting that the high grading is due to "its exceptional rood screen, an architectural survival of national importance".

References

Sources

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External links

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Illustrated article on the Llananno rood screen from BuildingConservation.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Llananno, Saint Anno 14th-century church buildings in Wales Grade II* listed churches in Powys Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches