Llandovery: Shock as paving slabs stolen from historic church

Paving slabs were taken from outside St Mary's Church in Llanfair-ar-y-Bryn

Paving slabs, including a distinctive large blue piece of slate, have been stolen from a church.

Paul Pritchard, vicar of St Mary's in Llanfair-ar-y-Bryn near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, said it was "the last thing" the church needed.

A wall has already collapsed on the site of the Grade-I listed building, and another wall has concerning cracks.

"It is a very well-loved church, I doubt anyone local would have done it," the vicar said.

Replacing the path slabs would be difficult, he said, given there were already no funds to repair the collapsed wall.

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"I came to church on Sunday morning and the slabs were missing," Rev Pritchard said.

He added the warden had discovered the slabs had been taken on Thursday.

"Someone just took the chance and drove up the road," he said, adding the Welsh-language church is in an isolated spot.

St Mary's was built on a Roman site and is of historical significance.

Hymn writer William Williams Pantycelyn, an 18th-Century Welsh Methodist cleric, is buried in the churchyard.

He is best remembered as the author of Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah - or Redeemer - commonly known as Bread of Heaven, the English-language version of the Welsh hymn Arglwydd, Arwain Trwy'r Anialwch.

The church also houses his writing desk and many of its windows are by John Petts, a 20th-Century artist known for his stained glass work who had strong links to the civil rights movement in the US.