St Beuno's Church, Bettws Cedewain
| St Beuno's Church | |
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St Beuno's Church, Bettws Cedewain
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 Location within Powys
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| 52°33′37″N 3°17′45″W / 52.560342°N 3.295912°WCoordinates: 52°33′37″N 3°17′45″W / 52.560342°N 3.295912°W | |
| Location | Bettws Cedewain, Powys |
| Country | Wales |
| Denomination | Church in Wales |
| History | |
| Founder(s) | St Beuno |
| Dedication | St Beuno |
| Consecrated | Probably 7th century AD |
| Events | Rebuilt 1868 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 21 August 1995 |
| Architect(s) | William Eden Nesfield |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Medieval and Victorian |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Bettws Cedewain |
| Archdeaconry | Montgomery |
| Diocese | St Asaph |
St Beuno's church, Bettws Cedewain lies within the historic county of Montgomeryshire in Powys. The church occupies a prominent position overlooking the village of Bettws Cedewain, on the northern edge of the valley of the Bechan Brook which flows into the river Severn. Bettws is about 9 miles to the south-west of Welshpool. The church is a single-chambered structure with a western tower, set in a near-circular churchyard. A campanile or bellcote was added to the earlier tower in the early 16th century by the vicar, John ap Meredyth, whose memorial brass remains in the church to-day. The church was extensively rebuilt in 1868 under the supervision of the architect William Eden Nesfield. This included a complete rebuild of the upper part of the tower
St Beuno was a Celtic saint who died c. 640 AD. A life of the saint survives. He was born in Banhenic, an unidentified place in the Severn valley. He was sent to study under St Tangusius or Tatheus at the Roman settlement of Caerwent near Newport. He was then given land in Aberhiew, (Berriew) by Mawn ap Brochwel a descendant of Brochwel Ysgithrog, on which he would have founded a minster church or clas. While at Berriew he performed many miracles and founded other churches in Powys and North East Wales, including presumably Bettws Cedewain, before moving to Clynnog Fawr in Caernarfonshire, where he founded the monastery at Clynnog Fawr for which he was mainly remembered.
The church is likely to have been founded by St Beuno in around 600 A.D., and its almost oval churchyard may indicate that it was a monastic or clas church of early medieval origin. With the rectory and vicarage it was recorded as Eccli'a de Bethus in the Norwich Taxation of 1254 and as Ecclesia de Bethys with a value of £5 in the Lincoln Taxation of 1291. Between 1254 and 1272 it became one of the appropriated churches of the Cistercian abbey of Strata Marcella, and remained so up to the Dissolution.
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