Llanbister

The church at Llanbister is built into a steep hillside above the Ithon, and the ground rises so sharply behind it that the east end is buried in the slope.

The consequence is that the tower is at the east end rather than the west, and you enter the church through it. That is genuinely unusual and it is the first thing to notice.

The building is medieval with later work, and it has a gallery, box pews and a font that may be Norman. The dedication is to Cynllo, an early Welsh saint with several churches in Radnorshire.

The parish

Llanbister was a very large parish covering a great deal of upland, and in the medieval period it held one of the largest sheep walks in Radnorshire.

That is the whole economic history of this part of the county in one sentence. Maelienydd, the commote this parish sat in, was fought over between the Mortimers and the Welsh for two centuries, and what everyone was actually fighting over was grazing.

The settlement pattern is the dispersed one typical of Radnorshire: a church, a handful of buildings, and farms scattered across several square miles. There is no village in the English sense and there never was.

The Ithon

The river runs south from here to join the Wye above Newbridge, and the valley is quiet, green and almost entirely agricultural.

Llanbister Road station, on the Heart of Wales line, is around three miles from the village, which is a good indication of how the railway was built to serve a geography rather than a population.

Around

Llananno, three miles south on the A483, has the finest medieval rood screen in Wales in a small church beside the road. It has its own page and it is the reason most people come to this valley.

Abbeycwmhir is five miles south-west over the hill, where the Cistercians planned the longest nave in Wales and never finished it.

Taking Llanbister, Llananno and Abbeycwmhir together in a day gives you the medieval church in Radnorshire from three directions: the parish, the craftsmanship and the monastic.