2 days ago
- General
- Powys County Times
The Powys church and its mysterious skull and crossbones
A CHURCH in Powys is full of mystery.
The 750 year old St Fraid Church in Llansantffraid dates back to the 11th century and and is dedicated to the memory of an Irish Saint, who is reputed to have crossed the Irish Sea on coracle.
More than 15 churches bear a variation of the Irish nun.
However, the church also has more recent mysteries - like a painted skull and cross bones in the porch and a bell which was originally intended for a church in the next parish.
Within the porch are two sections of an aged gravestone found in the churchyard.
One half bears a skull and cross bones; the other an hour glass and a hammer crossed with another implement.
Speaking in 1955, the Rev Hughes-Thomas, said that little else was known about the stone, except that it was probably the lid of a tomb. Whose tomb? That remains a mystery.
Much more is known about the bells.
The big bell, which is inscribed "Peace and Good Neighbourhood," is dated 1718, and was bound for Llanfechain Parish Church when the horses pulling the wagon became bogged in the deep mud of those early Montgomeryshire roads.
The bell remained on the roadside for several weeks, the wagon wheels sinking deeper each day.
Eventually it was decided to move it no further and it was hung in St. Ffraid's nearby.
Two other bells are marked 1618.
In 1863, when the Prince of Wales was married, the bells were pealed so violently to celebrate the event that one was cracked and had to be re-cast.
