St Stephen's, Old Radnor

Old Radnor is a hamlet on a ridge with an enormous church on it, which is usually a sign that the settlement pattern has changed and the church has not.

St Stephen's is largely of the late fifteenth century, rebuilt after the Glyndŵr revolt in a burst of prosperity that produced a great deal of the best church woodwork in the Marches. It contains three things that are individually remarkable.

The organ case

The case of the organ is dated to around 1500 and is the oldest surviving organ case in Britain.

The instrument inside it is not original — the pipework has been replaced more than once — but the case is medieval, carved and painted, and it survived the Reformation, the Commonwealth and the Victorian restorers.

Very little English or Welsh church furniture of that date survived the seventeenth century at all. That this did is close to miraculous.

The screen

The rood screen and loft are late fifteenth century, running the width of the church, with fine tracery and vaulting.

Radnorshire and the Marches have a concentration of surviving medieval screens — Llananno, Partrishow and Llanwnnog among them — and this is one of the best. They survive here because the parishes were poor enough not to modernise and remote enough to be overlooked.

The font

A large, roughly shaped stone bowl on four feet, quite unlike a normal Norman font.

It is often said to be a prehistoric standing stone or glacial boulder hollowed out and reused, possibly as early as the eighth or ninth century.

Either way it is one of the more arresting objects in any Welsh church.

The setting

The church stands on a shelf above the Radnor valley with a view east into Herefordshire. Nearby is a large earthwork, and the position — commanding, with wide views — suggests a site of some significance long before the present building.

New Radnor, the planned medieval town, is two miles west and took the borough status; Old Radnor kept the church.

Visiting

Open, free. There is limited parking in the hamlet and a pub next door.

It repays a slow visit. Take a torch for the screen carving, which is in shadow for most of the day.