Lampeter
Dedicated to the apostle Peter, the church at Lampeter is the largest church in the area and considered the best Victorian church in the county. It is noted for its exceptional collection of stained glass windows, especially its west window by the renowned Irish artist Wilhelmina Geddes.
A church on the site is first mentioned in 1291, but was replaced in 1838 and again in the late 1860s. R.J. Withers’ church was completed in 1870.
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Main pathway from Church Street–gradual incline
Level incline, but three steps, via entrance in Bryn yr Eglwys
Adjacent on-street parking and a further large car park in the town centre
Nearby bus stops in High Street (A475) — frequent services
Cycle parking possible alongside church
Public conveniences in town centre
Refreshments available from nearby cafes and public houses.
Church services Sunday
Said communion: 8:00am in nearby church hall (Bryn Eglwys – opposite police station).
Said communion or morning service: 10:30am in church
Key & guide 01570 421698 (by appointment).
Postcode SA48 7EL
OS Grid Ref SN57554836
Situated within a large curvilinear churchyard, St Peter’s is prominent in its elevated siting overlooking the town from one of a bowl of hills surrounding the historic market town.
The rebuilt church of 1838 was of poor quality and was replaced by the present building, largely due to the efforts of the local landowner John Battersby Harford, of the previously Quaker banking family. The imposing Victorian High Gothic style was the design of R.J. Withers, with a south-west tower topped by a pyramidical slated cap. The lofty interior, emphasised by exposed wood roof trusses, consists of nave and chancel with a south aisle Lady Chapel separated by substantial round pillars. Late twentieth-century Nonconformist-style white overpainting, fails to entirely obscure some fine carved details, including portrait busts of Bishop Connop Thirwell of St Davids and Revd Llewelyn Lewellin, Dean of St Davids Cathedral, Principal of nearby St David’s College and first vicar of the newly built church.
The circular font and pulpit are of stone, as is the ornate reredos, with its mosaic representations of Christ in Majesty along with the symbols of the four evangelists. The wood-encased organ on the north of the chancel, is by Vowles of Bristol (1884), and complements the fine chancel woodwork of Caröe.
The church’s collection of stained glass dominates the interior. The five-light Crucifixion east window of 1875, below tracery heads of 1870 is flanked in the sanctuary by a Resurrection window on the south side and David and Solomon of 1938 on the north side. Christ’s commission to St Peter occupies the east window of the south aisle, with the remaining aisle windows celebrating saints Christopher, David, Tysilio and Garmon, together with a depiction of the Virgin Mary of 1931. The westernmost of these smaller south aisle windows, dating from 1939, is by Ninian Comper, one of the most important ecclesiastical architects of the twentieth century and depicts St Helen bearing the True Cross.
The four large north windows depict Saint Anne and Saint Elizabeth, Christ with Works of Mercy, Justice and Sacrifice and the westernmost window, King David and Saint Luke. All dating from 1919 to 1925, two of these windows bear witness to the trauma of that period. The Justice and Sacrifice window is a memorial to a First World War casualty, unusually featuring an image of a dead British soldier, whilst the window depicting saints Anne and Elizabeth is dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Battersby Harford who died in 1919. She was born in 1829, the daughter of Baron Christian von Bunsen, Prussian ambassador to the Vatican and later to Great Britain. Poignantly, immediately below this window, is a brass plaque, commemorating the death of her grandson, John Henry Harford, a 1916 British casualty of the 1914–18 war between her country of birth and adoptive home.
The most outstanding feature of St Peter’s is its west window, the work of Wilhelmina Geddes, interpreting elements of the life of the church’s patron saint. It was originally commissioned in 1937 by Sir Arthur Harford, however the Second World War delayed its installation until 1946. The window is one of the most important stained glass works in any Welsh church. Christ, cradling a church, stands between fishermen-saints Peter and Andrew as the window reminds of their calling by Jesus, illustrating Matthew’s narrative as well as Isaiah’s prophesy concerning the event.
The church porch contains a number of significant monuments removed from the earlier buildings on the site and installed here. Chief amongst them is a large 1820 marble commemoration and memorialisation of Reverend Eliezer Williams, founder of the renowned Lampeter Grammar School, which, amongst many distinguished pupils, numbered the son of Sir Walter Scott. The school building still exits, standing opposite the churchyard gateway.
St Peter’s churchyard is also worth exploring. It contains a number of large, ancient yew trees, and several eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiquaries wrote of their great age, and also recorded folk customs associated with them.
The churchyard also contains a number of elaborate nineteenth-century tombs and graves. The simplicity of two sites within its boundaries continue to impress and encourage reflection. One is immediately within the entrance gateway: more than a hundred graves of former inmates of the once nearby parish workhouse, with small headstones marked with only a number and initials. The other is adjacent to the eastern boundary wall where there are two graves of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Of standard ‘milestone’ design, they are sculpted in a grey, local stone, rather than in the usual Portland limestone and stand over the remains of two Lampeter brothers, David and Harry Sturdy, who died while serving in the First World War.
Other churches nearby
The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is close to the church, with an interesting range of artworks from the 1930s.
