Welsh Journals

DISMANTLED CHURCHES IN WALES. Extract from The Christian Pictorial," August 2, 1894. M ANY of our readers may require to be told that Llandrindod Wells is a small but rising town situated on the north west border of Radnorshire. Till within a comparatively recent period it could not have aspired to the dignity of a village. A few farmhouses, a couple of small inns, and the Pump House Hotel," afforded the only accommodation for the visitors to the Wells. The Parish Church of Llandrindod occupies an elevated position, is literally founded on a rock, and is a picturesque object in the landscape. It is a substantial stone building, and is supposed to date from a period so remote as the 13th or 14th century. The graveyard has been the principal burial- ground of the surrounding neighbourhood for centuries past, although the graves, for the most part, have to be excavated out of the solid rock. Two of the illustrations shew respectively the past and the present condition of this venerable edifice. More than a year ago, under the directions of the present vicar, the roof was entirely removed, and ever since the Church has remained little better than a ruin. The interior, as shewn in one of our illustrations, was taken three weeks ago, just one year after the unroofing. It presents a humiliating picture of rotting cushions, cloths, hassocks, altar rails, tables, pulpit, and pews, and a medley of bells, font, bucket, and the accumulations of a year's neglect. As the ruin has stood for that period it has been utterly unprotected from wind and weather, and exposed to the pro- fanest desecration on the part of many who visit it. The Parish Church of Cefnllys is supposed by some antiquarians to be of a date anterior to that of Llandrindod, and is, if possible, a