Bettws-Bledrws / Bettws Bledrws / Betws Bledrws

The entry for this parish in Meyrick (1808) notes: "the font exactly resembles that at Henvyniw". Evans (1914) writes that the bowl of the font "is similar to those at Llansantffraid and Henvynyw". Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one of three baptismal fonts of the Norman period in Cardiganshire that are ornamented with a band of "circular rosette-like figures" around the outer sides of the basins [the other two are Henfyniw/Henfynyw and Llansantffraed]. "The design of the ornament band being identical in these three cases, one mind was evidently responsible for it, and if the fonts were actually not executed by the same hand, it would seem that a school of masons or carvers must have been at work. Such school may well have had its quarters at the Cistercian Abbey of Strata Florida in the same county. It is further remarkable that the ornament of these fonts, being formed by arrangements of circles, resembles some of the very curious carved work of Strata Florida. In the abbey ruins may still be seen considerable remains of a sort of diaper pattern which apparently adorned the wall of the chancel, and the design of which is formed of concentric circles". Peter Lord, in Diwylliant... (1998-2003) dates both these fonts to the 12th century. Thurlby (2006), who adds the font at Llanarth to those sharing this style of motif, comments that Tyrrel-Green's idea of a workshop [cf. supra] "is an attractive one though difficult to prove", but that there are similarities between these fonts and the sculpture fragments at Strata Florida.