St Peter’s Church, Machynlleth

PWMP logobutton_lang_welshbutton_lang_frenchSt Peter’s Church, Machynlleth

The tradition of Christian worship here may go back to the 6th century, when St Cybi reputedly established a church beside the flood plain of the river Dyfi. The round form of the churchyard perimeter is typical of early Christian establishments.

The church is noted as Ecclesia de Machenleyd in a 1254 document. The building we see today mostly dates from 1827. The tower is older, built in the 15th and 18th centuries, and has eight bells, three of which were cast in 1745 and bear the names of the churchwardens and rector. The Victorian bells bear Welsh messages such as Deuwch Addolwn (“Come, We Praise”). Two bells were added in 1911 to celebrate the crowning of King George V and Queen Mary, who visited Plas Machynlleth that year.

The church’s renovation in the 1890s included installation of marble flooring. The font dates from the 15th century.

Inside the church is a marble memorial for the eight members of the congregation who died in the First World War and one who died in the Second World War. A war grave in the churchyard is the resting place of Private John Watkin Lewis, who was invalided out of the South Wales Borderers in 1917 but never recovered. He died in January 1920, aged 34.

In November 1918, wounded soldiers from the town’s Red Cross hospital came to St Peter’s Church for a service of thanksgiving for the recent end of the war. Ministers from three Nonconformist chapels took part, alongside the rector. The town councillors sat with Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest on the pews normally reserved for his family.

Postcode: SY20 8AG    View Location Map

Parish website

 

To continue the Machynlleth in WW1 tour, leave the churchyard and cross the main road. Turn left at the main road and continue to the railway station, on the right
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