Church Of St Illtyd, St Gwynno And St Dyfodwg

Llantrisant Church — the Church of St Illtyd, St Gwynno and St Dyfodwg, long known as "The Mother Church" — stands in the historic hilltop town of Llantrisant in Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the old county of Glamorgan in south Wales. Its very name tells its story, for "Llantrisant" means "the church of the three saints", and the church is dedicated to three early Welsh holy men — Illtyd, Gwynno and Dyfodwg. Built within a short distance of the medieval Llantrisant Castle, of Norman origin and rebuilt in the Victorian age, it is a Grade II* listed building and the ancient religious heart of one of the most historic towns in Glamorgan.

The church was founded at a very early period, though no precise date of its foundation is known. According to the manuscripts of the antiquary Iolo Morganwg, it was founded by Einion ab Collwyn after an earlier church nearby had been burnt — a tradition that, however uncertain, points to the great antiquity of Christian worship on this hilltop. The triple dedication to Illtyd, Gwynno and Dyfodwg reflects the world of the early Welsh saints, the holy men who established churches and cells across south Wales in the age after the Romans, and it gives the town and its church their distinctive name.

In the Middle Ages the church was an important one, the mother church of a wide parish. Its advowson — the right to appoint the priest — was held in the thirteenth century by Gilbert de Clare, the powerful Marcher lord of Glamorgan and builder of the great castle at Caerphilly, and references to the church appear in the records from 1262 onwards. The living was a vicarage in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Llandaff, and it controlled a string of dependent chapels across the surrounding district — at Llantwit Fardre, Ystradyfodwg, Llanwonno and Aberdare — each dedicated to one of the parish's saints, so that Llantrisant truly was the "mother church" of a great swathe of the Glamorgan uplands.

The original church was in the Norman style, but by the late nineteenth century little of the medieval fabric survived: the only traces of Norman architecture were the baptismal font, a portion of the south doorway, and the lower part of the western arch of the nave. The church was substantially restored in 1873, at a cost of nearly £3,000, and again in 1894, when the tower and the west end of the nave were restored at a cost of about £1,200; at this time the bells were re-hung, and a white marble baptistery for baptism by total immersion was placed under the tower. The church provided 333 free sittings — an important provision for the poor of the growing industrial town. The tower, which rises some seventy feet, contains a peal of six bells and is a landmark on the hilltop, visible across the surrounding valleys.

Today the Church of St Illtyd, St Gwynno and St Dyfodwg continues as the parish church of Llantrisant, within the Church in Wales, maintaining its long tradition of worship on the hill where Christians have gathered for well over a thousand years. As the "Mother Church", it remains the spiritual centre of a town proud of its ancient history and its distinctive identity.

The church crowns the old hilltop town of Llantrisant, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, between Cardiff and the Valleys of south Wales. The town is one of the most historic in Glamorgan, with the remains of Llantrisant Castle — the "Raven Tower" — close by the church, the old Guildhall, the Bullring with its statue of the eccentric Dr William Price, and the steep, characterful streets of the medieval town. Llantrisant is also home, on its modern outskirts, to the Royal Mint, where the coinage of the United Kingdom is struck, giving the ancient town a thoroughly modern claim to fame. The surrounding countryside of Rhondda Cynon Taf, the Vale of Glamorgan, and the city of Cardiff are all within easy reach.

From a church founded in the age of the early Welsh saints and dedicated to the three holy men who give the town its name, through its Norman fabric, its medieval status as the mother church of a great parish under the Marcher lords, and its Victorian restorations, the Church of St Illtyd, St Gwynno and St Dyfodwg gathers more than a thousand years of Glamorgan history into one building. A Grade II* listed church on its ancient hilltop, "The Mother Church" remains the living parish church of Llantrisant — the church of the three saints, at the heart of one of the most historic towns in Wales.