Cathedral church of St Deiniol

Cathedral church of St Deiniol

This is a substantial cathedral church built in rubble masonry with some dressed stone, featuring lead roofs and crenellated parapets to the nave and tower. The building comprises a 2-bay chancel, transepts, a crossing tower, a 7-bay nave, and a west tower.

The exterior displays considerable architectural detail across multiple periods. Diagonal buttresses support the bell tower, while stepped buttresses with niches on the north side support the nave. Scott's gabled buttresses with detached shafts frame the chancel. The east window is a striking 5-light design with mullion and transom work. The south side features one 5-light ogee traceried window and two smaller 16th-century windows positioned over a buttress, alongside blocked window remains of the earlier Romanesque church. The east wall of the south transept preserves the blocked opening of a former chapel. The north side has paired and single lancets serving the vestry, accompanied by Gothic chimney stacks. The central tower carries two carved roundels on each face, with four lancets on the west side. The transept gable ends feature plate tracery windows with dog tooth ornament to the north. The nave aisles have 3-light windows with reticulated tracery, though only six bays of the clerestory are glazed. Rainwater heads are dated 1791. A blind ogee-headed niche over the low southwest entrance displays 4-order roll and sunk chamfer mouldings, with boarded doors and strapwork hinges; a similar arrangement appears on the north side entrance.

The four-stage west tower has stringcourse set-offs, a crenellated parapet, and crocketed finials. Clock faces on the north and south sides sit above 3-light belfry openings. The 3-light west window displays ogee and tear-drop tracery. Below it is an inscription reading "Thomas Skevington Episcopus Bangorie Hoc Campaniele et Ecclesiam fieri fecit Ao Partus Virginei - 1532", commemorating Bishop Skevington's patronage of the tower and church in 1532. The square-headed west entrance has a label and similar boarded doors to the side entrances.

The interior reveals a nave with a 6-bay, 2-order arcade carried on octagonal piers with square bases and linked hoodmoulds. Above this, the stone walls are rendered. An oak roof with bosses, crenellated tie beams, and stone corbels spans the nave. Modern inner porches have been added to the north and south; a slightly off-centre 3-order tower arch with steps leads to a further modern inner porch. A square pulpit with chamfered corners and panelled reliefs stands in the nave, alongside a 15th-century octagonal font on a modern platform with a modern canopy.

The crossing features heavily moulded arches with half-round responds to the west. A choir screen of 1908 by Oldrid Scott and a rood of 1950 by Alban Caroe occupy this space. The chancel has an encaustic tile floor and canopied choir stalls, beneath a 5-bay timber lierne roof also by Scott. A low blocked doorway on the north side gives access to the space where a Netherlandish 17th-century wood-carved statue stands in a blocked window opening. An 1881 reredos by Oldrid Scott completes the chancel's furnishings.

The transepts have 3-bay hammerbeam roofs. The south transept serves as the Lady Chapel and features a 1934 painting by Brian Thomas set into the former arched opening of the medieval Lady Chapel. A tomb recess in the south wall traditionally contains the body of Owain Gwynedd, though the recess itself is later in date and appears to relate to the resiting of his remains.

Two broken medieval stone crucifixes survive, one at the tomb recess and one at the reredos. At the northwest end stands a collection of medieval stone-carved pieces including a well-detailed 14th-century monument to Eva. The Mostyn Christ, a Bound Rood said to be dated 1518 and possibly from Rhuddlan Priory, hangs at the west end of the north arcade. Many 19th-century wall monuments line the interior.

The stained glass is of considerable artistic interest. Three windows contain glass by David Evans of Shrewsbury, originally created in 1838 for the east window and relocated in 1873. The south transept window was made in 1885 by Mayer of Munich, and the present east window dates to 1873 by Clayton and Bell.