Priory Church of St Seiriol

Priory Church of St Seiriol

A cruciform church of stone construction with a central tower over the crossing. The roof is mid-19th century and later slate with a cross gable finial at the chancel; the tower has a pyramidal stone roof.

The oldest part is the 12th-century nave of 2 bays. The north wall has a restored chamfered plinth and an original pilaster-buttress with modern coping, with an original round-headed window to the east. A 13th-century north doorway has chamfered jambs and a shouldered arch. The south wall has a similar plinth and buttress, with an opposing window of the same type. The original south doorway has jambs of 2 orders—the inner square, the outer with detached shafts with scalloped capitals and roll-moulded bases. The arch is a single roll-moulded order enclosing a tympanum carved with a beast with its head turned backward biting its forked tail, bordered by a band of 4-cord interlaced work. The west wall has a chamfered plinth and an original round-headed window with round rear-arch.

The mid-12th-century central tower is square in plan with 2 stages and a squat pyramidal stone spire with small old slates; the 2nd stage string is a mid-19th-century addition. Only the upper stage is visible externally, with a window in each wall of 2 round-headed lights with cushion capitals and square bases (those in the south and west walls are replacements).

The south transept is contemporary with the central tower; its east wall was rebuilt during the mid-19th-century restoration. The south wall has an original window, later blocked. The north transept was rebuilt on its original foundations in the mid-19th century, with paired round-headed lights in the north gable and a round-arched light in the east wall.

The chancel was rebuilt in 1855 with 2 bays, each having paired trefoiled lights and a pointed arched doorway in the southeast angle under a timber porch on stone walling. The doorway has hollow chamfered jambs of 2 orders. The east window has cusped tracery over 3-trefoil lights in a pointed arched frame with hoodmould.

Interior

The 12th-century nave contains deeply recessed windows with widely splayed reveals set high in the walls. At the west end of the nave stands a font dating to around 1000, originally the base of a cross returned from Beaumaris in the 19th century. It is square in plan, tapering to the top, with three sides decorated with Celtic fret, diaper, key pattern and triquetra knots; the fourth side is plain. A 12th-century pillar piscina with a rectangular stem, scalloped and foliated cap and roll-moulded base stands nearby.

Above the tower arch in the east wall of the nave are 3 carved stones: 2 with human faces and a third with 2 faces, probably from the 12th century. The lower stage of the tower has a round crossing arch in each wall, all original except the north wall, rebuilt during the mid-19th-century restoration. The east arch has square jambs and plain impost with plastered masonry. The south arch has jambs of a single order (square on the south, with attached shafts on the north bearing scalloped capitals and roll-moulded bases), with a semi-hexagonal east shaft decorated with chevrons. The arch is plain on the south side and decorated with bands of chequer, chevron and bead-and-reel on the north. The west arch has plain jambs to the east and 2 orders to the west, each with attached shafts (the outer round, the inner chamfered or grooved), with roll-moulded bases and 3 crudely carved capitals and one scalloped. The chamfered imposts are enriched with semi-circles, triangles and zig-zags. The outer order of the arch is decorated with chequer and chevrons; the inner is roll-moulded. The 2nd stage of the tower has a small window in the south wall opening into the transept, with round rear-arch and splayed reveals.

Along the south and west walls of the south transept runs an arcade of round arches, 5 to each wall, carried on attached shafts with scalloped capitals, chamfered imposts and roll-moulded bases on chamfered plinths. The arches vary in width and are decorated with chevrons. Most shafts are round, some with central bands; 2 on the west wall are square with chevron enrichment, and 1 in the southwest corner is twisted. A moulded string runs above the arcade. Built into the mid-19th-century east wall of the south transept is a wheel cross, formerly sited at the apex of the tower. The mid-19th-century east window depicts St Christopher and St Seiriol and has 7 fragments of a 15th-century chancel window re-set within it.

Two carved stones are re-set into the walls of the south transept: one a 12th-century Sheila-na-gig (a weathered female figure with legs apart), the other a Medieval bearded man's head and shoulders holding an axe in his right hand. A cross dating to around 1000, formerly used as a window lintel in the refectory, stands in the south transept. The shaft and head are a single stone with a modern base. The north and south faces are decorated with Celtic knotwork and key-pattern designs with edge panels terminating in beasts' heads.

Set into the north wall of the chancel is a 12th-century plain latin cross. A 13th-century bronze plaque of Limoges enamel, displayed in a glass case, depicts a demi-figure of Our Lord with a red nimbus, his right arm raised in benediction. Several 12th-century stones decorated with chevrons are re-set into the south wall of the chancel.

The church contains a number of 17th and 18th-century memorials, including one bearing the arms of Wilsford (a chevron engrailed between 3 leopards' heads flanked by a winged hour glass and a skull) commemorating Sir Thomas Wilsford of Ildinge, Kent, who died in 1645.