Llanelieu

The Blood-Red Screen and the Road In

Inside St Ellyw's, a fourteenth-century rood screen and loft still stands painted blood red, its quatrefoil openings facing the altar and, above them, the ghostly outline of the cross taken down at the Reformation. Little else has been tidied away. The six-bay roof keeps its paint, patches of medieval plaster survive, and a sandstone sundial by the door reads PB WARDEN 1686. Two grave markers, carved somewhere between the seventh and ninth centuries, flank the porch.

The church is Grade I, redundant, and cared for by the Friends of Friendless Churches, though it still holds the occasional meeting and concert. Getting in takes a little planning: some accounts say it is open daily, others tell you to collect a key from Llanelieu Court next door, so it is worth checking before you drive out. And you will be driving. Llanelieu sits about three kilometres east of Talgarth on the north-western slopes of the Black Mountains, reached along narrow lanes with passing places, and it has probably never been much more than this. A mid-nineteenth-century survey found only the church, Llanelieu Court and a cottage called Ty-du. There is no shop or pub in Llanelieu itself.

Churchyard, Yew and Court

The church stands where two small streams meet, in a large, irregular, roughly circular churchyard with Rhos Fach Common rising to the south and Rhos Fawr Common to the east. A yew here once served as a whipping post; a felon's hands were pushed through holes bored in the trunk and held with a bar. The pound and stocks that stood nearby have gone, but the tree is still there. Llanelieu Court, less than sixty metres off, carries the date 1676 and the initials of the Aubrey brothers who owned it; two pointed medieval arches inside have been claimed, without proof, as the remains of a monastic cell of Llanthony Abbey.

Flour, Honey and Talgarth Tables

For food you go to Talgarth. Talgarth Mill is a restored eighteenth-century watermill that fell derelict in the 1940s and was brought back to working order in 2011 with local effort and Lottery money; it grinds local grain into wholemeal flour on French Burr stones, runs guided milling tours, and houses the Pobl bakery and the Triggs café, which sources its ingredients within thirty miles. A little further, at Bronllys, the Honey Café has been run by the same family since Glynwen opened it in 1933, in a building that was once a malt house and brewery and whose cellar became a live-music club, the Honey Cavern, in the 1960s. It does Tex-Mex, Welsh cakes, bara brith and honey from its own bees, with meat from WJ George in Talgarth and a garden terrace facing the mountains. Talgarth's pubs run from the chef's steak-and-ale pie at the Bridge End Inn to chicken momo and Gurkha nettle curry at the New Gurkha Inn.

Common, Woodland and Connections

Walking is one of the best reasons to come. A six-mile round from Talgarth climbs Rhos Fach Common to below Y Das before dropping to the church, with Black Mountains views from Rhos Fach Common. Pwll y Wrach, on the edge of Talgarth, has a surfaced woodland path to a waterfall and, in spring, bluebells, woodruff and early purple orchids. Abergavenny is the nearest station; the A479 through Talgarth carries the X44 towards Hay-on-Wye.

A Prize to Find

Simon Jenkins put the church in his book on Welsh buildings and called it "a prize to all who find it." Notice the red screen through the open door, and you may find yourself staying longer than you meant to.