Church of St Mechell

Church of St Mechell

This substantially 12th-century church has been given an early Decorated character by plate tracery work from a 19th-century restoration. It follows an elongated plan with an extended chancel, a west tower, north and south transepts, and a southwest porch. The building is constructed of schist rubble with some grit dressings and has a slate roof with stone copings.

The nave comprises 2 bays with 2-light plate traceried windows. Important evidence of the original 12th-century church survives in a round-headed south door, a blocked round-headed window to the northwest, and a round-headed arch to the west of the south transept. The chancel is also of 2 bays, with similarly detailed windows in the west end and narrow leaded 12th-century lancets in the sanctuary. A narrow 12th-century doorway with a rounded head of rough schist voussoirs and roughly chamfered imposts is reset into this wall. The east window contains 3 cinquefoil-headed lights with reticulated tracery in a pointed-arch frame, topped by a moulded hoodmould.

The north and south transepts feature 3-light windows with shallow arched heads and curvilinear tracery. The south transept has a weathered medieval head above its south window and a narrow rectangular leaded light in the east wall. The three-stage west tower has a round-headed leaded light in a rectangular frame in its west wall on the ground floor, with narrow ventilation slits in the upper storeys. The top is finished with an embattled parapet wall with a protruding dripcourse on all four elevations and is surmounted by a corbelled octagonal spire. The south porch is gabled with a wide pointed arched entrance, fitted with a boarded door that has ornate hinges and a stirrup-shaped handle.

The southwest porch has a stone flag floor made up mainly of weathered gravestones, with late 17th- and early 18th-century gravestones set against both side walls. The inner doorway is a narrow round-headed doorway with rough schist voussoirs and imposts. To its left is a 14th-century sepulchral slab with a cross running down the centre; the head has hollows between arms with expanded ends, and large leafed foliage descends either side of the shaft. The boarded door bears ornate hinges. This doorway leads to the west end of the nave, where a square-headed doorway in the west wall provides access to the west tower.

The nave and chancel are spanned by a continuous 15th-century arch-braced roof with high-set collars. The chancel is raised by 2 steps with a moulded rail on shaped stanchions with scrolled brackets. The sanctuary is raised by a further 2 steps and contains a reredos of recessed oak panels. The transepts have similarly detailed roofs set within shallow pointed arches with broach-stop chamfered angles. The 19th-century fittings include a pulpit with recessed facing panels with chamfered angles under a moulded rail, supported on 4 shaped legs. The 12th-century pulpit stands at the west end of the nave; it is a square gritstone bowl on each side with a sunk panel containing 2 round-headed arches and square imposts on all but the north side. It has been cut away at the base and stands on a stone plinth made up of window mullions.

The south wall of the nave bears a marble memorial tablet surmounted by an obelisk and urn to Thomas Meyrick (died 1763), his son Richard (died 1796), Reverend William Meyrick (died 1819), and his daughter Elizabeth (died 1821). The south transept window is dedicated to Sarah Elizabeth Hunter, daughter of William Bulkeley Hughes of Plas Coch and Brynddu (died 1797). The south chancel wall has two late 19th-century windows: one depicting Christ the Shepherd, dedicated to William Hughes, Rector (died 1888), and another showing Christ healing the sick, dedicated to John A W Hughes and Margaret his wife (died 1883). The north chancel wall contains a window depicting Rob the Bruce and St Margaret, dedicated to Colonel Sir Charles Hughes Hunter, Baronet (died 1907). The east window was removed for repair at the time of survey.