Church of St.Cadwaladr

Church of St. Cadwaladr

This is a church whose exterior character is largely defined by Perpendicular style detailing. The building is T-shaped in plan, comprising a 3-bay nave with a south porch and west bellcote, and a chancel with north and south chapels off it.

The church is built of snecked masonry with freestone dressings, except for the south chapel walls which have rough rendered elevations. The roof is modern slate with tiled ridge and stone copings. Stone crosses stand at the gable apexes, and the west gabled bellcote—built to house three bells—is surmounted by an iron cross.

The east wall is articulated by offset buttresses, with diagonal buttresses at the corners and along the south wall of the south chapel. The fenestration throughout is characteristic of the Perpendicular style.

Entry to the church is through a pointed-arched doorway of 2 hollow chamfered orders in the south porch. The porch has a plinth with moulded top and moulded kneelers, and a window of 2 quatrefoil lights in the west wall. The south wall of the nave has windows either side of the porch: to the west, a rectangular window of 4 trefoil-headed lights, and to the east, a rectangular window with paired trefoil-headed lights under quatrefoils, with a stag's head in relief in the stone above it. The north wall has similarly detailed windows: an east window of 3 lights and a central window of 4 lights. At the west end is a blocked doorway of late 12th-century date, featuring chamfered jambs with fluted imposts, a 2-centred head with roll-moulded architrave and soffit, and a moulded label.

The south chapel has an ogee moulded plinth at its base. Entry is through a basket-headed doorway in the west wall, set in a square frame with moulded jambs and broach stops. The arch contains a shaped keystone of triangular section carved with a fleur-de-lys and the date and initials 1661 A O; the keystone projects above the line of the label. To the left of the doorway is a deeply recessed, round-headed light set in a square frame with deep lintel and weathered hoodmould. Above the doorway is a moulded sunk panel flanked by Doric quarter-columns, and an impaled shield above recording that the chapel was built in 1661 by Anne Owen in memory of her husband Hugh Owen Esquire.

The south wall of the south chapel is dominated by a slightly advanced central gabled bay with angle buttresses and moulded finials at the kneelers. The bay contains an exceptionally large pointed-arched window of 4 trefoil-headed lights, with a battlemented transom and Perpendicular tracery and another transom at the head. The window has a deep hollow moulded surround and moulded label and is flanked by recessed, paired trefoil-headed lights in square frames with weathered labels.

The east elevation is articulated by 3 large windows. The east wall of the south chapel has a window similar to that in the advanced bay of the south wall. The east chancel window is a pointed-arched window of 3 trefoil-headed lights over 3 quatrefoil panels, with cusped tracery, a chamfered surround and moulded label with human head stops. The east window of the north chapel is a pointed-arched window of 3 trefoil-headed lights and geometric tracery, with a hollow-moulded surround and moulded label with floriate stops. The north window of the north chapel is similarly detailed. The west wall of the north chapel has no windows. Two stone plaques at the top of the wall record that the original north chapel was built in 1640 by Richard Owen Meyrick Esquire, and a vault beneath it by his great-grandson Owen Meyrick in 1730, and also the rebuilding of the north chapel by Owen Putland Meyrick Esquire in 1801.

The interior is entered through the pointed-arched inner porch doorway with broach stop chamfered surround. The nave is of 6 roof bays with exposed 19th-century collared trusses, lower curved braces with chamfered soffits, descending to wall posts on decorated corbels which include stiff-leafed foliage, human head, and angel corbels. The nave contains 19th- and 20th-century memorials as well as a 7th-century 'Catamus' stone set into the north wall.

The chancel is raised by a single step through a reconstructed 14th-century chancel arch of 2 chamfered orders. The north chapel is entered through a similarly styled 19th-century arch, and the south chapel through an arch of 2 x 4-centred hollow chamfered orders with semi-octagonal responds with moulded imposts and plain bases.

The chancel contains a late 15th-century stained glass window, said to have been hidden in a vault during Cromwell's rule and probably replaced when the south chapel was built. It is believed to have been given by Meuric ap Llywelyn ap Hwlcyn and his wife Marged, as a token of thanksgiving for the safe return of their son, Owain, from the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The window comprises 3 lights above a traceried panel. The central light depicts the Crucifixion, unusually showing the translucent figure of Christ painted to reveal the bones, like an X-ray in effect. Beneath an embattled arch is the portrait of St. Cadwaladr; the left light depicts St. Mary and the right light St. John.

The south chapel (the Bodowen chapel) contains a mural monument above the doorway in the west wall, commemorating Hugh Owen who died in 1659, erected by his wife Ann Owen in 1660. It has flanking Ionic columns on pedestals supporting an entablature with an achievement, flanked by an obelisk on either side. In the centre are 2 kneeling figures, male and female, in period costume, in round-headed arched recesses with a prayer-desk between. Below is an inscription tablet flanked by 2 coats of arms.

The north chapel (the Meyrick chapel) contains a number of memorials to members of the Meyrick family of Bodorgan. On the west wall is a marble memorial by M W Johnson of Liverpool—a white inscription tablet with shield above and family coat of arms and motto below—to Owen Putland Meyrick, who died in 1825. On the east wall are 2 memorials: to the north, a highly ornate carved marble memorial with a central recessed inscription tablet flanked by engaged columns, to Sarah Fuller, sister of Owen Fuller Meyrick; to the south, a marble memorial to the children of Augustus Elliot Fuller Esquire. Between the two memorials is a stained glass window with the initials F M incorporated into the patterned design, representing Fuller Meyrick, the donor of the window.

Around 1860, Owen Fuller Meyrick donated the north window, which has a highly ornate carved grey marble surround. The base of the frame is formed in the manner of an altar table, with ornate cusped detailing to the front and trefoil-headed recesses each bearing inscription tablets to members of the Meyrick family. The upper part is recessed with engaged shafts at the angles, and the reveals are decorated with floriate quatrefoils. The window comprises 3 lights: the central light depicts the Resurrection of Christ, the right light portrays Peter and John healing the crippled beggar beside the Beautiful Gate, and the left light depicts Salome requesting that Christ grant a place of honour to her two sons in his kingdom.

The fittings are 19th-century, many being gifts of Owen Putland Meyrick of Bodorgan.