Church of St. Mary, Llanfairpwll

The Church of St. Mary is a Decorated style church dating from the 18th century, constructed of local rubble stone with sandstone dressings and a slate roof featuring stone copings and cross sockets. The church includes a nave with a southwest tower and spire, an east-facing chancel, and a north vestry. The nave, divided into three bays, has offset buttresses and two-light geometrical tracery windows. The west gable features a window with a relieving arch of hammer-dressed stone and a sandstone label with facial stops, mirrored by the east gable chancel window. The tower has offset angle buttresses, incorporating a ground-floor entrance porch. Above the porch is a bell stage with a Lombard frieze; this stage features vents resembling windows on each face, and the broach spire is adorned with carved animals at each corner.

Inside, the pointed internal door is set within a cambered surround. The nave’s six bays feature exposed collar beam trusses with braces extending down to wall posts and corbels. The corbels above the doorway depict an angel holding a shield and another angel holding a parchment, while the other corbels display plain shield designs. The chancel is raised by three steps and has a modern, panelled wagon ceiling painted with floral motifs. The sanctuary is further raised by a step and features a granite, cusped, panelled reredos across the east wall.

The east window depicts biblical scenes, erected in 1876 in memory of Field Marshall Henry, 1st Marquess of Anglesey. The west window, portraying Christ and the Apostles, was erected in 1876 in memory of Sir Robert Walter Otway Baronet CCB. A north wall window depicts Christ the resurrection and the life and commemorates P P R Morgan JP and C T S H Morgan, who died in 1900 and 1906 respectively. A south wall window portrays Christ, with a coat of arms above, and commemorates Harry Clegg of Plas Llanfair.

The font is hexagonal granite, supported by four pillars with a cross carved within a rectangular panel on each facing side, dating from 1851. The pulpit is also hexagonal granite, with a cusped, panelled design matching the reredos. The pews are pine and were installed in 1964, originating from a church in Machynlleth. A moulded sanctuary rail is supported by brass-plated stanchions, which have been re-positioned in recent years. A new organ by R E K Edwards of Liverpool was installed in 1979, its pipework housed within a gallery at the west end of the nave.

Several monuments are present. On the north wall of the nave, a grey marble tablet with a pink columned surround bearing a wreath and cross and the inscription “TYDDLAN HYDANGAU” commemorates the men of the parish who fell in the Great War (1914-1918). Another monument, a white marble tablet with a black surround by T Gaffin of Regent St. London, commemorates T Schunk Esq of Carreg Bran, who died in 1865. In the chancel’s south wall, a pink granite tablet lists the names of the men of the parish who lost their lives in the Second World War (1939-1945). A miscellaneous item is an oak litany desk, dedicated to Arfryn of this parish, who died in 1943, and given as a gift by her brother E E Pritchard.