Manordeifi Old Church

Manordeifi Old Church stands in a quiet field near the River Teifi in Pembrokeshire. The building is made of stone with slate roofs and has a nave, chancel and large west porch. A single bellcote sits at the west end and a small vestry is attached to the north side. The church was once surrounded by flood risk, so worshippers kept a coracle in the porch to ferry them home when the river rose. The church has been a place of worship since the 6th or 7th century, first dedicated to Saint Llawddog and later to Saint Lawrence. In the 12th century it became dedicated to Saint David when the parish was created. The nave and chancel date from the 13th or 14th century, with the porch added soon after. The building was altered in the 18th century and repaired twice in the 19th century before being abandoned in 1899. Inside, the walls are plastered and whitewashed, and the nave floor is paved with slates. Four box pews are larger for local families, two of them fitted with fireplaces. The plain pulpit is partly built into a pew and the 13th-century font has a square bowl on a circular shaft. A 15th-century bell hangs in the bellcote and monuments remember Charles Colby, killed by a tiger in India, and the poet John Blackwell, buried in the churchyard.