Outside St. David’s church in Heyope there are these features:
(Click a link or scroll down the page to see details.)
Tower
Porch
Windows
Buttresses
String course
Churchyard
Gates
Letterbox
Yew trees
Masonry
Roof
Recurring motif
Tower
The rectangular west tower has a broach spire. Each corner is chamfered to the pinnacle, which is surmounted by a weather vane.
The bell openings on all sides except the east have two louvered lancets with a circular opening above.
The interior of the tower is illuminated by a pointed headed window in the west wall, decorated in character and having two ogee headed lights with quatrefoil tracery above.
Comparing an old photograph with the fragment of base at the northwest corner reveals that the north wall of the previous tower was built on a slightly different alignment.
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Porch
Porch: The stone built porch has one bay with stone seating and a red encaustic tiled floor bordered with black tiles. The doorway has a two-centred arch with continuous keeled moulding.
The gabled entrance to the porch has a moulded tie beam with cusped raking struts.
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Windows
The windows in the north and south walls of the nave and in the south wall of the chancel are Perpendicular* in character. They have rectangular surrounds and consist of a varying number of ogee-headed** lights.
*‘Perpendicular’ architecture emphasises height and vertical forms. It was popular between 1335 to 1530.
**An ‘ogee’ is an onion shape.
The east window of the chancel reflects an earlier Decorated* style, having three cinquefoil headed lights with intersecting and quatrefoil tracery under a pointed arch.
*‘Decorated’ architecture uses flowing tracery and naturalistic carving, popular from 1290-1350.
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Buttresses
Single buttresses, thirteenth century in style, reinforce the wall on both the north and south sides of the church.
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String Course
A keeled string course runs at sill level from the eastern side of the porch to the north wall of the tower, interrupted only by the north vestry.
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Churchyard
The churchyard lies on a mound with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. It is roughly rectangular in shape and bounded by a stone wall, which was extensively renovated in 1999. The builder maintained that the capstones consist partly of re-used flagstones from the former church and that the projecting course beneath incorporates discarded roofing slabs.
On either side of the farm gate and against the boundary wall is a garden of remembrance. The entire churchyard is lovingly maintained by a small band of volunteers and blends in beautifully with the surrounding countryside. In 1993 the churchyard won the competition for ‘Best Kept Graveyard’ in the Radnor District.
Headstones: Although headstones are located on the south, west, and north sides of the church, there are surprisingly few at the eastern end. Headstones range in age from the eighteenth century to the present day. They are carved from various types of stone, including granite, sandstone, and more recently, slate from North Wales. Some nineteenth century stones are finely carved, with a recurring vine motif, possibly the work of the stonemason who lived at Vineyard Cottage above the north side of the church.
Of special interest is a broken cross against the eastern boundary wall commemorating six-year-old Julia Commissiares, who was born in Antwerp in 1912. A local resident remembered that she died in a fire at Brookside, Knucklas, in a row of cottages now gone. Also at the eastern end is a headstone to three-year-old Mary Ann Jordan who died in 1865.
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Gates
The main entrance has sturdy iron gates surmounted by a wrought iron arch, dedicated to the memory of R.H. (Ron) Evans by his widow, Gwen, of Lower House Farm.
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Letterbox
A Victorian letter box in the wall dates from about 1876, just after a post office opened in Knucklas. On the north boundary wall a wide farm gate provides access for churchyard maintenance.
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Yew Trees
Yew Trees: On either side of the main path there are three yew trees, the largest having an estimated age of seven hundred years. A thick metal ring has been driven into the trunk of the nearest yew on the eastern side of the path, presumably for tethering animals.
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Masonry
With the exception of the tower, the church’s fabric consists mainly of coursed blocks of roughly dressed, oxidised shale with occasional blocks of sandstone. In addition a buff coloured sandstone is employed for window dressings and for the porch entrance and south doorway.
Apart from the east wall, which is built of freshly quarried stone, the tower has been reconstructed, probably using masonry from the former tower and church. Its walls consist of roughly coursed slabs of grey shale together with pieces of fine-grained sedimentary rock.
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Roof
The roof of the main body of the church is clad with small clay tiles; those on its ridge are toothed. A finial cross is mounted at the eastern gable end.
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Recurring Motif
Above the east window arch is a hood mould. The end stops are carved with a distinctive motif, which is repeated throughout the church.
