Guilsfield, or Cegidfa, the Hemlock field, is situated in a basin, rich and fertile, and on the way to it the delightful timber-and-plaster house of Old Garth is passed on the right.
The church dedicated to S. Aelhaiarn is Decorated, with a Perpendicular east window, and a fine carved ceiling in the chancel. The modern pitch-pine roofing of the nave and aisles is mean and out of character with the old work, as is also the modern screen, which is not only coarse in design, but has been carried half-way up the doorway that gave access to the ancient loft.
In the churchyard are some fine yews. By one is a tombstone with the inscription:—
“Under this yew tree
Buried would he be,
For his father and he
Planted this yew tree,”
and the monument is to Richard Jones, who died, aged ninety years, on December 10th, 1707.
The font has on it some curious carving, and in the porch is an oak chest hewn out of a single trunk.
A holy well a mile and a half distant is in a pretty dingle; it is frequented on Trinity Sunday, when its water is drunk with sugar, and is still regarded as possessing curative properties.
A more interesting holy well is at Llanerfyl. Under a grand old yew tree in the churchyard, said to be the staff of the saint which rooted itself there, is the only Romano-British inscribed stone in the county. Some fragments of the saint’s shrine remain.
The well, Pistyll y Cefn, Bedwog, lies in a field a quarter of a mile distant from the village. It is in fair preservation, built up and covered with large granite slabs, but the water has been drained away. Formerly people assembled there on Whit Sunday and Trinity Sunday to drink sugar and water at the well.