Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A medieval parish church of Grade I status, built primarily in the medieval period with architectural details spanning from the Romanesque to the 16th century. The building consists of a western tower with spire, a nave with southern porch, a lower chancel, and a southern chancel chapel. It is constructed of rubble masonry with heavy mortar joints and freestone dressings, beneath a slate roof with stone copings and the bases of gable finials.

The two-stage western tower features offset angle buttresses to its lower stage and a pointed arched western door with hood-mould. The upper stage is recessed slightly and contains a single simple arched light housing the bell immediately below a crenellated parapet. Above this rises a short pyramidal spire recessed behind the parapet. An unusually long southern porch extends westward from the nave; its original doorway has been blocked and a window inserted following its conversion to a vestry in the mid-19th century. A simple flat-headed two-light traceried window from the 14th century stands to the east of the porch. The north wall of the nave displays a three-light window of similar date with simple round-headed lights. The chancel has a three-light panel-traceried eastern window set in a pointed arch with hood-mould. The chancel's north window is a 19th-century copy of a late 16th-century nave window, featuring three round-headed lights with hood-mould. The southern chapel contains a fine 16th-century eastern window of three foiled lights within a chamfered four-centred arch and hood-mould, with a flat-headed window of three foiled lights to its southern wall.

Entry to the church is now through the lower stage of the western tower via modern double doors into the west end of the nave. A doorway to the vestry opens to the south, and to the north stands an octagonal stone font with circular bowl. The nave is covered by a roof of exposed collared trusses linked by moulded timbers running the length of the roof and decorated at spaced intervals with painted plaster shield bosses. The nave and chancel are separated by a plain round arch dating to the 11th or 12th century. The chancel features an exposed late 15th-century roof of closely spaced arch-braced trusses, with alternate trusses incorporating posts. The southern chapel has an early 16th-century roof of four bays with exposed heavy arch-braced collared trusses.

The chancel and southern chapel are separated by an early 16th-century arcade of three bays featuring four-centred arches with two hollow-chamfered orders. The columns are octagonal with semi-octagonal responds bearing moulded capitals and bases. The eastern respond contains early 16th-century letters below the springing course reading: "SCA MARIA ORA PRO ME DAVID A JACO". Evidence of a screen position to the north of the western column is shown by a cut groove corresponding to markings on the chancel's north wall. On the south side of the column stands a crudely carved stone bearing a human face. The chancel is raised by one step with a modern moulded chancel rail on stick balusters. The sanctuary is raised by a further step and paved with 18th-century gravestones: to William Roberts of Cayrey, died 1714, and to Ellen, wife of Thomas Rowlands, died 1729; in the southern chapel to J W Hughes, died 1766, and to Wm Hughes, died 1767. The eastern and southern walls of the southern chapel sanctuary feature a panelled reredos.

The north wall of the chancel contains several memorials: a marble tablet with pyramidal head to Evan Thomas of Maes, bonesetter, died 1814, erected by Thomas James Warren Bulkeley, Lord Viscount Bulkeley; a marble tablet with moulded head and base above a slab depicting cherub heads, set on plain corbels, to William Roberts of Cayrey esquire, died 1715; an ornate marble tablet with flanking scrollwork, obelisk and urn to the head, set on a shaped base with floral wreath, to Emma Lady Viscountess Bulkeley Williams, daughter and heiress of Thomas Rowlands of Nant, Carnarvonshire; and a marble tablet with fluted sides and top, set on a shaped base with shield motif and urn in pyramidal head above, to Sir Hugh Williams Baronet, died 1794. The southern wall of the southern chapel displays a modern slate memorial to James and Frances Williams, erected at the request of their descendant Sir Kyffin Williams. Additional 20th-century memorials occupy the eastern wall and floor of the southern chapel.

The eastern window of three lights was created by D. Evans of Shrewsbury in 1850. The central light depicts Christ seated at a table, the left light shows Christ with children, and the right light shows the bearing of the cross, with text in Welsh.

The vestry, formerly the southern porch, preserves the southern side of the 14th-century doorway with its pointed head set within a square frame formed by the outer unit of the jamb mouldings carried up and returned across the head.