Church of St. Eugrad

Church of St. Eugrad

This small rural church, built in the 19th century in a simple Decorated style, comprises a nave and chancel with a north chapel set at right angles to the chancel, a north vestry, and a south porch. The walls are constructed of rubble masonry with grit dressings, pebbledashed rendered except for the north and west walls of the north chapel and those of the south porch. The roof is modern slate with stone copings and stone crosses at the gable apexes.

A single 17th-century bellcote sits at the west gable, featuring a simple arch and surmounted by the weathered remains of a ball finial. The south porch and north vestry, both added in the 19th century, have flat roofs with bold castellations over advanced dripcourses. The porch is of exposed gritstone, and its outer doorway has a round head of rough voussoirs. Within is a 15th-century doorway with a round arched head and quarter-round jamb mouldings.

Most church windows are 19th-century, though a blocked 12th-century window survives in the south wall of the nave, featuring chamfered jambs and a round head formed of a single stone. The 19th-century north window in the vestry is similarly detailed and incorporates a reset Medieval sill and jamb. The 19th-century east window displays Decorated tracery of three trefoil-headed lights in a chamfered surround with hood mould. The west window and the north window of the chapel are similarly detailed 19th-century windows of two lights. A blocked 16th-century doorway in the west wall of the chapel has a shallow pointed arch head formed of a single stone.

Inside, the nave and chancel are separated by a simple 12th-century chancel arch with chamfered imposts, now plastered over. The nave has a late 17th-century roof of chamfered collared trusses on wall posts sprung from shaped corbels. A 14th-century north doorway, now giving access to the vestry, is accompanied by a reset weathered gritstone water stoup alongside which stands a carved crucifixion stone, probably 13th-century, bearing a crudely carved figure on a wheel cross with pierced spandrels. The chancel features a 16th-century roof with closely spaced arch-braced trusses resting on a 19th-century beam carried on shaped corbels spanning the wide opening between the chancel and north chapel. The chapel, a 16th-century addition, has a roof similar to that of the nave though with broader trusses; the north truss has a trefoil above the collar beam.

The church retains 18th-century memorials including a recessed stone memorial to John Williams of Bodgynda (died 1721); to Rowland Jones (died 1757) and his wife Mary Thomas (died 1763); to Owen Thomas of Park (died 1783), his wife Margaret (died 1794), their son Owen (died 1702), and their daughter Elizabeth (died 1796), and to Anne, daughter of William Edward of Llanfaes (died 1790). Other 19th and 20th-century memorials mainly commemorate the Williams family of Parciau, the estate on which the church stands, though there is also a well-detailed Art Nouveau style stone memorial to John Groome, 4th Officer of the Royal Charter, which sank off the coast at Moelfre.

The 19th-century church fittings include pews, pulpit, reading desk, and chancel rail, all embellished with pierced trefoil decoration. Above the chancel rail on the south wall of the chancel is a wooden panel, formerly part of a pulpit, bearing conventional leaf ornament and dated 1644 with the initials BAB.

At the west end of the nave stands a font, probably 12th-century, consisting of a plain tapered bowl with a projecting band at the base. A tall, much weathered water stoup of unknown date also remains.