The story of St Teilo's Church at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont

The church in question is known by a few names including Church on the Marsh, Llandeilo Talybont Church and St Teilo’s Church. We will refer to it as St Teilo’s as this is the official name according to Amgueddfa Cymru, but the other names will be used in reference in relation to quotes.

St Teilo’s Church was built in the 12th century at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont near Pontarddulais (hence the alternative name for the church). The location is close to a marsh, which is where the Church on the Marsh alternative name came from.

The church was built on the site of an earlier Celtic church and was altered and extended over the following centuries. The nave and chancel are the oldest parts of the current church. Some of the extensions happened in the 14th century according to Amgueddfa Cymru when small chapels were built on the north and south sides of the chancel. The capacity of the church was increased in the late 14th century or early 15th century as an aisle was added to the south side of the nave.

Around the same time, the old south wall was replaced by two arches and a third arch opened into the chancel, with a porch added to the entrance door that led to the south aisle of the church.

The roof timers are arch-braced collar-beams which are an early 15th century design, however, Amgueddfa Cymru believes they may be slightly later in date.

The next updates to the church were in the early 18th century when the west wall of the nave was altered – there is a 1736 datestone. In 1810 the interior was furnished with box pews and a three-decker pulpit. It is believed that at this time, most of the stone-mullioned windows may have been blocked up and replaced by new ‘Georgian gothic’ lancet-shaped windows. However, there is one surviving two-light stone-mullioned window in the south aisle which is believed to date back to either the 14th or 15th century.

The oldest feature in the church that still survives is the 13th century font, although it may be old than this.

St Teilo's Church is now at St Fagans. (Image: Richard Szwejkowski (Flickr via Creative Commons licence))

There is a fantastic article written by the late Ivor Griffiths about the church – which he refers to as The Old Church on the Marsh, as a number of locals around Bont and Hendy knew it as. The article was first published in the Pontarddulais, Hendy and District Carnival Programme 1997 and it has been used in this article with permission from Mr Griffiths’ family.

“From the time I was old enough to wander beyond the bounds of my village of Hendy, my feet always took me towards the marsh. I was fascinated with the marsh and seldom looked in any other direction.

On the marsh there were strange mounds called Banc-yr-Eithin, Banc-y-Rhyfel and Castell Ddu. The one place that left me in awe was the white washed old church that was known affectionately for years by the people of Bont and Hendy as ‘The Old Church on the Marsh’. I found out the correct name of the old church was Llandeilo Talybont when my father took me to attend a service there on a last Sunday in August in the 1920s. This was the one and only occasion that I was inside the church, and I can vaguely remember the almost clinical whiteness of the interior walls in sharp contrast to the dark beams of the roof and high-sided pews.”

The church was in a place that was fairly inaccessible according to locals as it was near the marshes, but Mr Griffiths found that the area was not always like that. He wrote: “How had the church been built on a place that the residents of Pontarddulais and Hendy considered to be fairly inaccessible? Well, it has was not always so. During the Roman occupation of Britain there was regular traffic between the Roman fort in Loughor and the Roman settlement in Carmarthen, the journey taking the Roman legions past the place where the River Loughor was crossed, and where it is believed that a pagan temple once stood. From this crossing the journey was continued through Hendy and on to Llannon and Carmarthen. Although this is pure conjecture, it is a known fact that in the Age of the Saints, many Christian churches were raised on the sites of ancient pagan temples, and it is reasonable to assume that this was the case with the church of Llandeilo Talybont, dedicated to St Teilo, the name Talybont being added because of the river crossing nearby and to distinguish it from the church at Llandeilo Fawr.”

Mr Griffiths found the earliest records of the church were found during the early 1100s during a dispute about boundaries. He wrote: “The earliest written record of Llandeilo Talybont was during a dispute about boundaries between the Bishopric of Glamorgan and that of St David’s. Urban, Bishop of Glamorgan (1107-1134) claimed several parishes far across the Loughor as being part of his diocese, stating that they had been given to Dyfrig and Teilo by Meuric ap Tewdrig. This claim was strongly contested by Bernard, Bishop of St David’s (1115-1148). So Urban took his case to Rome to appeal to Pope Calixtus the Second, and to his successor Honorius the Second. No decision was made, and Gower, including Llandeilo Talybont, remained in the Diocese of St David’s.

The site of St Teilo's Church just outside Pontarddulais. (Image: Geraint Owain Price (South Wales Guardian Camera Club))

“Llandeilo Talybont was again mentioned in the ‘Valor Ecclesiasicuus’, a report made in 1535 for King Henry VIII, giving an account of the financial resources of all religious houses in the kingdom as well as who were their patrons, and who were their priests. Llandeilo Talybont was valued at £3: 14: 6 a year, and the priest was David Jones. The living as considered to be below average.

“The wall paintings on the interior walls of the church came to light shortly before the removal of the church to St Fagans, were probably covered with lime wash by puritans during the Cromwellian period. These ancient murals reappeared when exposure to the weather due to the theft of the roof slates caused the lime to flake away revealing the wall-paintings underneath.

“Of all the clerics that serviced in the ancient church, the longest serving and most notable was the Rev. Edmund Nash Leigh, who served as curate in the parish of Llanedi, and also ministered at Llandeilo Talybont for over 50 years. Edmund was ordained by the Bishop of St David’s in 1760. He was apparently a remarkable man, ‘an example to the world and an ornament to the church’.

“In the first half of the 19th century, the need for a church in a more convenient place became obvious, and one August 29th, 1850, Howell Gwynne of Baglan Hall laid the foundation stone of the new St Teilo. It was consecrated by Connop Thirwall, Bishop of St David’s on October 31st, 1851, and formally opened in January 1852. This was the beginning of the decline of ‘The Old Church on the Marsh’.”

Between 1984 and 1985, the church was dismantled and was moved to St Fagans, where it was refurbished to how it could have looked around 1530. This includes all the elements associated with a late medieval Catholic church such as a rood screen and loft between the nave and chancel, altars, carvings and the aforementioned brightly coloured paintings on the walls. It was opened to the public in 2007.

Today, the area of the former church can still be seen as you can make it out in the picture in this article taken by South Wales Guardian Camera Club member Geraint Owain Price.

Permission to use Mr Ivor Griffiths’ work in this article was granted by Leighton Griffiths.