St Clement’s Church secures £22,610 grant as part of national £800,000 package to save historic buildings
A CRUMBLING church tower in Powys which has been closed over safety fears is set to reopen after St Clement’s Church in Rhayader secured a share of almost £800,000 in urgent national funding.
The tower at St Clement’s has been described as being in a serious state of decay, with water seeping through cracks, damp spreading through the structure and even foliage growing inside. The floorboards have become so badly affected by dry rot that they are now unsafe to walk on, forcing the church to close the tower to the public.
Church representatives warned that unless the work is carried out soon, the tower could become beyond repair.
Help has now arrived in the form of a £22,610 grant from the Jane Hodge Foundation, awarded on the recommendation of the National Churches Trust. The funding forms part of a wider UK-wide payout aimed at keeping churches open, safe and in community use.
The church says the repairs will not only secure the tower, but will allow it to begin plans to open the building more regularly to visitors and local residents, turning it into a heritage and social space.
Heritage site with a ‘Giant’s Grave’
There has been a church on the site in Rhayader since medieval times, with the current building dating back to the 18th century. Although the church is unlisted, it contains a range of historic features.
Among the most unusual is the so-called “Giant’s Grave”, a mass burial site discovered during rebuilding works in the 18th century. Skeletons were reportedly found, including one with a thigh bone described as being of giant proportions. The remains are believed to have belonged to victims of plague or those killed during an attack on the nearby castle’s English garrison.
Other features include an early medieval font with worn carved faces, a Gothic-style stone pulpit, a carved wooden parclose screen, and several high-quality stained glass windows dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
One window serves as a World War One memorial, depicting a knight with a broken lance and the words “Pro Patria” – meaning “for one’s country”.
Repairs planned
The grant will fund urgent work to make the tower windproof and watertight, including replacement of the rotting timber floorboards, emergency masonry repairs, and re-covering the lead roof.
Claire Walker, Chief Executive of the National Churches Trust, said: “The National Churches Trust is delighted to be able to support St Clement church to enable them to carry out urgent repairs to their beautiful building. Not only will this protect this important heritage, but it will help to keep the church building open and serving local people.”
Gareth Simpson, Wales/Cymru Support Officer at the Trust, added: “Once the repairs have taken place, the church will be an even more welcoming space for all to enjoy. We look forward to continuing to support St Clement – and other churches, chapels and meeting houses across Cymru – to help keep them open and in good repair.”
‘A massive challenge in rural Mid Wales’
Gafyn Blakeway, Lead Grant Officer and Chair of St Clement’s Church Committee, said the funding was vital to keeping the church open.
He said: “As with so many other churches, keeping the fabric of such historic buildings safe and in good condition is a massive challenge for congregations. This is even more the case in rural areas such as Mid-Wales. We are thrilled and very grateful to have received this grant from the National Churches Trust.”
“Without such support we would have been forced to close the church, while the future of an historic building in the heart of our town would have become deeply uncertain.”
He added that further fundraising would now be needed to explore reordering the interior of the church, with the long-term aim of making it more accessible and more useful to the local community.
Confusing dedication
The church’s dedication to St Clement is also something of a mystery. Historians believe the original dedication may have been to St Cynllo, a 5th-century Welsh saint. The later dedication to St Clement – a seafarer – has raised questions given Rhayader is around 35 miles from the sea.
Despite the uncertainty, the church remains one of Rhayader’s most distinctive historic buildings and sits close to the site of a medieval castle which would have existed alongside the earliest church on the location.
Once the tower repairs are completed, St Clement’s hopes to reopen more widely to the public and welcome visitors to explore its unique heritage.
