Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a small rural church comprising a nave and chancel with a south chapel and porch, built of snecked rubble masonry. The older masonry at the base of the walls is uncoursed, while late 19th-century openings have sandstone dressings. The roof is slate with decorative tiled ridge, stone copings on shaped kneelers surmounted by cross finials, and a dressed stone west bellcote.

The nave is of three bays. The north wall contains a blocked doorway to the right (west), with a pointed arch and chamfered jambs. The left (east) window is a 17th-century paired cinquefoil-headed light, while other windows are similarly detailed 19th-century windows of one, two and three lights with hoodmoulds. The east wall has been rebuilt and contains a reset late 14th or early 15th-century window of three cinquefoil lights with cusped tracery in a pointed arched frame, topped with a late 19th-century hoodmould. The east window of the south chapel is similar to the easternmost window of the north wall of the nave. The south window is a pointed arched window of two cinquefoil-headed lights under a quatrefoil, with a moulded label bearing angle bosses.

The late 19th-century south porch features a Tudor arched doorway with broach stop chamfered jambs and foliate bosses to a moulded label. A relieving arch of rough voussoirs stands above, and a sandstone tablet bears the date 1882. The inner doorway has a Tudor arched frame with broach stop chamfered jambs. The east wall of the porch contains a rough stone piscina purported to be a 12th-century font bowl, above which are portions of a window frame.

The roof features exposed closely spaced chamfered braced collared trusses. The chancel and south chapel have chamfered arches on shaped corbels; the chancel arch is decorated with stiff-leafed foliage, with a carved eagle on the left and a lamb on the right. The chancel is raised by four steps and the sanctuary a further step up to a floor of encaustic tiles. Church fittings are 19th and early 20th-century, including a moulded sanctuary rail on shaped balusters with shaped and pierced brackets. The early 20th-century reredos comprises recessed panels with the centre raised under a pierced foliate frieze, the panels cusped with foliate carving in the spandrels. In the north wall of the chancel is a trefoil-headed recess, and on the south wall a stone tablet to Reverend John Jones of Plas Gwyn (died 1727) and Reverend Thomas Owen (died 1812).

The south chapel contains numerous memorials to members of the Jones, Panton and Vivian families of Plas Gwyn. On the east wall is a marble memorial tablet set in a corbelled frame with pointed pediment to John Panton Jones (died 1830), below which is a stone wreath memorial to Constance Emily Vivian (died 1905), wife of Claud Hamilton Vivian. To the right is a bronze tablet to Charles Crespigny II Baron Vivian (died 1886) and Mary Elizabeth, Baroness Vivian, and to the far right a marble memorial to Paul Panton Esq, eldest son of Paul Panton of Bagillt (died 1882).

On the south wall, flanking the window, is to the left a scrolled memorial tablet to Thomas Williams of Tan y Graig (died 1851), and to the right a marble memorial with a cherub's face above and skull and crossbones below to William Jones, Counsellor at Law (died 1775).

On the west wall are two marble memorials: to the south with open moulded pediment above and angel below to Jane Panton (died 1764); to the north one to Hugh Williams, son of John Williams of Tû Frû by Elizabeth his wife, only daughter of Rowland Whyte of Fryers Esq (died 1722), bearing arms Argent, two foxes in saltire gules, a crescent in chief for difference (Cadrod for Williams) impaling Collwyn for Whyte.

Memorials along the north wall of the nave include a marble memorial to Hugh Williams of Tu Fru (died 1768), son of John Williams (died 1771), with a corbelled tablet under an open pediment with an urn in the tympanum, below which is the family crest and arms quarterly: i and iv Cadrod, ii Llywarch, iii Collwyn. A small bronze tablet on the west wall commemorates Owen Owens (died 1774), Elizabeth Owens (died 1797), Richard Owens (died 1810), and Jane Morris, their mother (died 1808). Set in the floor of the vestry is an early 18th-century gravestone.

The octagonal 19th-century font has chamfered angles with a cross on each principal face, resting on a shaped, chamfered shaft and plinth.