---
title: "St Melangell, Pennant Melangell"
description: "Located in Pennant Melangell, Powys. Built Stone church from the late 12th century; restored 1876–77 and 1989–92. Diocese of St Asaph. Grade I. Romanesque style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church in Wales","Powys","Pennant Melangell","Grade I","Romanesque","St Melangell","Pilgrimage"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-melangell-pennant-melangell"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:29:44.314Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T20:32:57.381Z"
location: "Pennant Melangell, Powys"
country: "Wales"
county: "Powys"
town: "Pennant Melangell"
address: "Pennant Melangell, Powys, SY10 0HQ"
postcode: "SY10 0HQ"
built: "Stone church from the late 12th century; restored 1876–77 and 1989–92"
architect: "Restored 1876–77 by Benjamin Lay of Welshpool; reordered 1989–92 by R. B. Heaton"
denomination: "Church in Wales"
dedications: ["Melangell"]
diocese: "St Asaph"
grade: "I"
style: "Romanesque"
materials: "Quasi-coursed local slate masonry of many periods; slate roofs with tile ridges"
website: "https://stmelangell.org/"
openingHours: "The church is open from 8.30am to 6pm daily during British Summer Time, but closes at 4pm after the clocks change in October."
parish: "Mission Area of Tanat-Vyrnwy"
listEntryUrl: "https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?id=7634"
gridReference: "SJ 024 265"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby"
---

# St Melangell, Pennant Melangell

St Melangell’s is a Grade I Church in Wales church in the remote Tanat Valley at Pennant Melangell, Powys, in the Diocese of St Asaph, on a site associated with the hermit-abbess Melangell.

## Overview

Cadw records early medieval origins in a rounded churchyard and Celtic dedication, with the present stone church probably begun in the late twelfth century and first documented as the ecclesia de Pennant in 1254. The fabric is quasi-coursed local slate of many periods under slate roofs: a long nave and chancel, west tower, south porch dated 1737, and an eastern apse rebuilt in 1989–92 in place of the eighteenth-century cell-y-bedd. Original Norman masonry survives around the south door and in the west part of the north nave wall; the font is late twelfth-century.

The church is listed Grade I for the reconstructed Norman shrine of St Melangell, dated architecturally to about 1160–70 and regarded as the earliest surviving Romanesque shrine in northern Europe. Fragments broken up at the Reformation were rebuilt in the chancel during the 1989–92 campaign. A fifteenth-century rood screen carries carvings of the Melangell legend. Benjamin Lay of Welshpool restored the church in 1876–77, rebuilding the tower; R. B. Heaton reordered the interior after demolition threats in the 1980s.

## Further Information

- [Cadw listed building 7634](https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?id=7634)
- [St Melangell’s Church (official site)](https://stmelangell.org/)
- [St Melangell's Church (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Melangell%27s_Church)