Church Heritage Record 5892

The church is named after St Issui, an early Celtic saint who is thought to have built a cell here. The site became a place of pilgrimage after he was murdered.  This has given the chrch an alternative name Merthyr Issui.  An inscription on the font mentions Cynhillin', lord  of Ystrad Ywin the  mid C11 - Cynhillin or Genillin was known to have been alive in 1056. This gives a date as being pre-Norman.  Known in Norman times as Merthur Issui it was, together with the mother church at Llanbedr, committed to the pastoral care of 'Matgueith', this was at the time of Herwald (Herwald?)who was consecrated Bishop of Llandaff in 1056.  For a period the church was dedicated to him.   Patricio first appears in the documentation in St David's Episcopal Register in 1512 as a chapel annexed to Llanbedr in Ewyas Deanery.  In 1864 Sir Stephen Glynne noted that the exterior was whitewashed, a small window at the west end of the nave was mutilated and closed, the chancel had an ugly modern ceiling encroaching on the arch.  Despite Glynne's comments the church avoided significant Victorian  restoration save that in 1891 Nicholson & Son undertook  some repairs and slight restoration.  The conservation work was undertaken by W D Caröe 1908-09 with further work in the churchyard in 1919.  During the Caröe restoration the south walls and porch were underpinned, the timber bellcote was replaced by a stone one.

At the west end of the churchyard is an 'eglwys-y-bedd' (chapel of the grave) with its own entrance.  This was a chapel erected over the grave of St Issui.  The grave is beneath the altar and is marked by a slab incised with 6 small consecration crosses (one more than the usual five).  (During the restoration of 1908 human bones were found here under the chapel wall.)

The churchyard cross recalled Archbishop Baldwin with whom Gerald of Wals toured Wales seeking support for the Crusade.  Baldwin is said to have preached a sermon here but there is no mention of it in Gerald's  'The Journey Through Wales'.  (Did Baldwin give him the slip?)  Gerald records that "e made our way along the rugged pass of coed Grwyne, by a narrow trackway overgrown with trees.  On our left we passed the noble monastry of Llanthony i its great circle of mountains." the ancient bridge across the Gryynr was known as 'Pont Esgob' - Bishop's Bridge

References

Cadw Listings Notice

Buildings of Wales – Powys 2013

Church Quinquennial Inspection Reports

CPAT Brecknockshire Churches Survey

The Church of Merthyr Issui at Patricio Canon Arthur Reed revised and reprinted 2010

This is a simple Gothic church comprising nave and a narrower chancel, with a south porch off the nave and a west chapel (Eglwys y Bedd) and  a west bellcote. It was built with small to medium slabs of grey and red sandstone laid as random rubble walls with bigger quoins, battered at the base.  The roof is of large sandstone tiles with ridge tiles of a similar material .  The bellcote and porch both have stone cross finials. The chapel roof has a steep pitch and was rebuilt early C20 slightly lower than previously, the earlier pitch marked by drip stones in the nave W wall. The nave has a wooden cornice below the eaves. The south doorway has a 2-centred head with a continuous chamfer and broach stops. In each side wall is a small chamfered, flat-headed opening. Left of porch is an early C20 2-light window with round-headed lights. To right of porch is a continuous stone bench (facing a preaching cross) and a 3-light Tudor window with hood mould. To upper right is a rood loft light in a dressed surround. The chancel is narrower and has a stone seat against the south wall similar to the nave, but broken by a priest's doorway right of centre with a renewed boarded door and strap hinges. Flanking the doorway are small windows in dressed surrounds. The east window is 2-light with hood mould, to the left of which is an early C19 memorial tablet. On the north side the chancel and nave have substantial traces of limewash, but no fenestration. The nave has a shallow outshut housing the rood stair added c1500. In the nave west wall the chapel (eglwys-y-bedd) is lower and offset to south side. To upper left in nave west wall is a square-headed window with iron barring. The west bellcote has a coped gable with  2 bells in openings with segmental heads. The chapel, or Eglwys y Bedd, has a C14 doorway offset to the left in the S wall with 2-centre head, continuous chamfer and renewed boarded and ribbed door. To the right is a trefoiled lancet. There is a plain lancet to the west wall, the gable of which has a stone stack.  

There is a small stable for use by priest and parishioners, of uncertain date but probably post medieval listed II.

References

Cadw Listings Notice

Buildings of Wales – Powys 2013

Church Quinquennial Inspection Reports

CPAT Brecknockshire Churches Survey

The porch has an early C20 roof. In the west and east walls are bench seats, with small C15 stoup. The south doorway has a Tudor head and a boarded and ribbed door with strap hinges and studs. The nave has a  wagon roof of 60 panels, with embossed ribs and a moulded cornice. In the north wall of the nave is a doorway with Tudor head to the rood loft. The chancel arch (obscured by the later rood screen) has polygonal responds of early C15, moulded capitals and a 2-centre arch with 2 orders of chamfers. The chancel has a ribbed ceiling with billeted cornice and tie beams, by Caröe. The church has a variety of internal fittings and fixtures over a long time span which demonstrate radical changes in liturgy. To right and left in front of the chancel arch are pre-Reformation stone altars with consecration crosses  these should have been destroyed in 1550 on the orders of King Edward VI.. Above the altars is the fine rood screen of c1500.

The walls are plastered and have paintings and texts of both pre and post Reformation periods. In the west wall of the nave  is a pre-Reformation memento mori comprising a skeleton holding aloft an hourglass, spade and knife, framed in red ochre. There is  similar one in Salperton Church Gloucester In the nave north wall is a large C17 Royal Arms now mostly perished, to the right of which is a contemporary Creed. In the south wall is a 10 Commandments, also C17. Above the south doorway is another illegible image. Further small texts and fragments are on the north and south walls.

A C17 polygonal pulpit standing in the nave has plain panelling. In the chancel are altar rails and altar as prescribed by Archbishop Laud in the 1630s, with fret-cut balusters.

The screen and rood loft have been desribed  as among the best preserved in Wales. Fenton found it 'the most perfect and best-preserved in the kingdom'.  It dates from about 1500 and spans the whole width of the church - carefully repaired by Caröe  the work was done by Nathaniel Hitch.  The two stone altars (above ) are nicily incorporatd into the screen and which is nicely balanced above the mid - rail with five bays either side of the doorway.  The outer bays have intersected diagonal traceries.  Cusped lancet tracery is to be found in the narrow bays and there is a shallow triangular head to the doorway restored by Caröe .  The underside of the loft is a restored rib-and-boss flat covering.  On the bressumer are three stepped trails of running onrament each wider and more boldly carved as they ascend..  A vine trail strung between two wyverns fills the uppermost, water-plan the middle, and serrated leaves sprouting from an undulating stem the lower.  The well moulded muntins divide the parapet into seventeen bays, each with a  panel of lacy Perpendicular openwork which stengthens the screens shimmery character.  The head-beam repeats the ogee trails of the bressumer, but they are interlinked, creating a series of cusped ovals, decorated with paired roses.  The loft is reached  via the north mural stair where the tympanum is missing.

References

Cadw Listings Notice

Buildings of Wales – Powys 2013

Church Quinquennial Inspection Reports

CPAT Brecknockshire Churches Survey