Monument & memorial of Willian Williams in churchyard of St Mary's Church

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: Included for historical importance as the memorial to one of the great figures of Welsh religious history. History: Red granite memorial erected to the Rev. William Williams (1717-91), the great hymnist and preacher, replacing, but in part reproducing the original inscription from the stone slab which lies flat in front of the memorial. The memorial was the fruit of a fund-raising campaign began in late 1884, by the influential Calvinistic Methodist minister, author and editor, Rev. Thomas Levi (1825-1916), in particular, to have a more impressive memorial than the original stone slab. The Rev. John Williams (1754-1828) had been buried close to his father, and the new memorial encompassed both the original graves. It was completed around the end of August 1886 at a cost just over 160, and the remaining funds from the campaign were used to pay for the carved pulpit in the Williams Pantycelyn Memorial Chapel in Llandovery. The prominent Liverpool sculptor, Joseph Rogerson, made the monument, to a design by the architect Richard Owens (1831-91), also of Liverpool, and Rogerson also sculptured the carved pulpit in the Memorial Chapel in Llandovery. The treasurer of the fund to raise the memorial was the wealthy builder, David Roberts (1806-86), who also worked very closely with Richard Owens in the building of the Welsh Streets in Liverpool. Exterior: Obelisk memorial in red Aberdeen granite. The memorial is of polished granite with incised decoration and some mouldings left unpolished. The obelisk has some incised neo-Grec anthemion ornament around the base and stands on a large pedestal with neo-Grec cross-gabled cap with incised leaf-scroll ornament over frieze with greek key ornament. The shaft is inscribed at the front with a copy of part of the

From Cadw under OGL v3.