Eglwys Crist (Christ Church)

Eglwys Crist (Christ Church)

A mid-19th-century church built in the Victorian Decorated style. The building comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north vestry, south organ chamber, south porch, and a western tower with spire. It is constructed of roughly coursed rock-faced rubblestone with ashlar dressings to the plinth and continuous cill band. The roofs are gable-ended with slate coverings, stepped coping, and stumpy stone crosses to the gables.

The nave is largely hidden from view by the two equal-height aisles. Both aisles have paired pointed 2-light windows with elaborate cusped tracery and head-stops to their west gable ends, with similar single windows to the east end and east bay of the north aisle, and to the east and west bays of the south aisle. The centre and west bays on the north aisle have paired steeply pointed Tudor-arched windows with elaborate cusped tracery and label-stops. The same window type appears in the centre bay of the south aisle. In the west bay of the south aisle, to the east of the window, stands a gabled porch with a pointed outer doorway featuring a decorated strap-hinged plank door and twin rectangular slit windows to the sides, with a ribbed inner door. The chancel has a large 3-light pointed window with label-stops. The lean-to vestry on the north has an integral lateral stack to the north, a small square-headed trefoiled window on the east, and a Tudor-arched doorway with slate steps to the west. The gable-ended organ chamber on the south has a pointed 2-light window with cusped tracery but without hoodmould to the east wall.

The corner-buttressed west tower is in four stages. At its base on the west is a low blind pointed archway containing a wooden cross in a recess, with an inscription around the archway reading "This church was built A.D. MDCXXXLVII at the sole expence of Thomas Assheton Smith Esquire". Above this is a 3-light window with reticulated tracery, followed by narrow trefoil-headed windows to each face. The belfry stage has louvred 2-light windows with cusped tracery and decorative roundels above each window. The tall broached spire has two stone bands and a cross to the top. At the north-east corner of the tower is a half-octagonal stone-capped staircase turret rising to the second stage, with two rectangular slit windows and a plank door with elaborate strap hinges at its foot. A short section of decorative iron railing connects the turret to the north-west corner of the tower.

The largely unaltered interior is of fine quality in the Decorated style. The high nave and aisle roofs are arch-braced in five bays on carved stone corbels with vertical struts linking the curved braces and collars; exposed rafters are carried down as vertical studs below the wall-plate to parallel rails beneath. Pointed hollow-chamfered aisle arcades also in five bays are supported on alternating circular and octagonal columns with moulded plinths and capitals, and carved responds at the east end. A tall chancel arch, similar to the nave arcades but without columns or responds, rises three steps up from the nave with a brass rail to the top. The chancel roof is arch-braced in three bays with cusping to the principal rafters, which rest on stone corbels of angels playing musical instruments. A pointed doorway to the vestry is on the north, and a wide 4-centred arch to the former organ chamber, now converted into a side chapel, is on the south.

Original fittings in the nave include a complete set of Victorian pews, a wooden pulpit, an octagonal font with trefoiled panels and clustered shafts to the base with an elaborate font cover, and a brass lectern. Three steps lead from the chancel to the sanctuary, which contains 19th-century stained glass in the east window. A modern screen across the western bay of the nave separates the Sunday School and kitchen beyond. Another modern screen divides the chancel from the former organ chamber, which now contains an altar and altar rail from the disused St Mary's Church, Dinorwic. A small octagonal font on a shaft pedestal, also from St Mary's, is now positioned in the south aisle.

The church contains several monuments. A Gothic monument on the north wall of the chancel commemorates Henry Grey Edwards, described as the 'first incumbent of this parish', who served from 1856 to 1873. On the north wall of the north aisle is a small Gothic tablet commemorating twelve people from Dinorwic who died when the pleasure boat they were in sank off Pwllheli on 1 July 1899; this event is also recorded by a small brass plate at the east end of the aisle.