"St.David's Church at Llanddew is a large cruciform stone structure with a central tower, lying 2km to the north-east of Brecon. It is considered to be a 'clas' foundation, but the earliest parts of the structure date from the 13thC. There have been subsequent rebuildings in the 17thC and 19thC. Medieval survivals include two stoups, a font and two carved lintels, as well as a stone with a ring-cross which may be pre-Conquest. The churchyard may originally have been curvilinear but its form has been modified in later centuries.
Nave supposed to be earliest part of church; this could be true for the south wall excepting the window insertions, but the west wall is a complete Victorian rebuild and it is possible that a substantial part of the featureless north wall was treated likewise in the 19thC.
North transept has portions rebuilt, namely the upper part of the north wall and some of the west, but the remainder should be 13thC on the basis of the single lancet window in the east wall.
For both chancel and south transept, it is difficult to determine the degree of rebuilding, and while the 13thC date is not in doubt most of the window dressings are considerably more recent. The porch, too, is 19thC.
Llanddew was an early medieval clas foundation. There is also a tradition that Eluned, a daughter of Brecon, fled to this church about 500 AD.
The Bishop of St Davids established a palace here in the 12thC, and Giraldus Cambrensis, as archdeacon of Brecon, had a residence at Llanddew in the late 12thC.
Its appearance in the 1291 Taxatio as 'Ecclesia de Llandon' at a value of œ8 implies a more wealthy establishment than the average.
The central tower was rebuilt in 1629 as attested by a plaque in the west wall of the chancel, and was restored in c.1780, the date of the roof. It is claimed that the nave was also refurbished in the 1620s.
Damage to the church may have occurred in a fire early in the 19thC.
In 1865 Glynne recorded a small whitewashed cruciform church in a 'truely deplorable' condition. The nave alone was used for services, the unpaved north transept was dilapidated and the south transept was walled off for a school, which no longer operated because of a lack of funds. The chancel was Early English in design, vaulted in stone, with lancet windows in the sides and a triplet with hood mouldings in the east wall; the priest's door had a trefoil head and a good hoodmould. The rest of the church might also be Early English but its diagnostic features had been obliterated, the nave having modern windows, though the north side was windowless. The tower was low and clumsy, with square belfry windows and a tiled, pointed roof. It stood on four plain semi-circular arches. There was a plain south porch. Inside were pews and there was a shabby chest for an altar. The east wall of the chancel had a small square recess and there was a 'rude' pointed piscina. The font in the chancel with its large circular bowl on a quadrangular stem with chamfered angles was not used.
By 1875 only the nave was in use, the other parts of the building being closed off, because of their state of disrepair. Restoration occurred in 1884 when the chancel and south transept were refurbished, new roofs were put in place in the chancel and transepts, and there was some new flooring; and in 1900 the nave had new lancets, a new roof, and the walls were stripped. A number of fragmentary post-medieval wall paintings of texts were uncovered in the chancel during the works but these have since been destroyed. "
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