Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Bodfan is a Grade I listed building in the Gwynedd local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 3 April 1951. A C19 (porch and restorations); early C20 (reredos dedicated 1911) Church. 1 related planning application.

Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Bodfan

WRENN ID
dusted-buttress-dust
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Gwynedd
Country
Wales
Date first listed
3 April 1951
Type
Church
Period
C19 (porch and restorations); early C20 (reredos dedicated 1911)
Source
Cadw listing

Description

A rubble-built church set against a hillslope, constructed with yellow sandstone dressings and slate roofs. The building follows a two-cell rectangular plan comprising an aisled nave and single-storey chancel.

The exterior walls are finished with parapeted, stone-coped gables with simple kneelers; those to the east carry 19th-century stone crosses. A 19th-century gabled bellcote surmounts the west gable. The nave is lit by four original clerestory lancets on both north and south sides. Single-storey aisles flank the nave, each with two lancets. The north aisle entrance is a continuous roll-moulded, pointed-arched opening with a 19th-century boarded door and decorative ironwork.

A large 19th-century south porch with steeply pitched coped gable and buttressing to left and right of the triple-moulded entrance arch is a substantial addition. This arch rises from triangular corbels that taper downwards to short shafts terminating in moulded conical bases. Within the porch lies the original south entrance: an extremely fine and elaborate pointed arched opening comprising four-tiered compound piers carrying similar compound voussoirs, with primitive foliate capitals featuring simple necking and bases. The porch contains 19th-century wooden doors with decorative ironwork. The west end displays a battered profile with continuous roll-moulded string course and three steeply gabled 19th-century buttresses. Two tall original lancets light this elevation.

The chancel is stepped-down and excavated into the hillslope, with a rubble gable parapet topped by a 19th-century cross-finial. It was extended eastwards in the early 13th century. The south side has three tall lancets, two of which are recent replacements, and to the right a replacement of an original two-light window with cusped heads. Pronounced weather coursing marks the junction with the nave. The east lancet is modern. A single-storey 19th-century catslide vestry with parapet and kneelers adjoins; its northwest corner carries a Romanesque-style cylindrical decorative chimney with conical capping and arched vents. Two further 13th-century lancets light the north side of the chancel.

Internally, the nave contains a five-bay arcade with triple-moulded Gothic arches carried on stout cylindrical columns. Some columns bear primitive petalled capitals, whilst others display more developed, though contemporary, trefoil stiff-leafed forms; all have moulded octagonal abaci with simple roll-moulded necking and bases. The roof dates to the mid-15th century and comprises alternating arched-braced collar trusses and queen-strut trusses, with two tiers of curved windbraces. A 15th-century octagonal stone font features blind quatrefoil panels and one foliate and one figurative panel, resting on a plain octagonal column with moulded base. The floor is laid in slate slabs. 19th-century figurative glass in Decorated style fills the clerestory windows and west end lancets. 19th-century oak pews with blind tracery bench-ends line the nave, and a 19th-century semi-octagonal stone pulpit in simple transitional style on a tiered base stands within.

A wide chancel arch with compound shafts and transitional foliate capitals, with plain necking and bases, separates the chancel from the nave. The chancel, raised above the nave floor, comprises four bays. The roof dates to the late 15th century with 19th-century restorations. The three western bays are of arched-braced collar type, cusped to create quatrefoils and trefoils, with two tiers of triple-cusped windbraces. Brattishing to the wall plates (crenellated) is partly renewed in 19th-century work on the north side. The eastern bay features a late 15th-century compartmented waggon roof, heavily restored, with carved rose bosses and three complex blind tracery tiers; modern polychromy has been applied. A simple 19th-century piscina adorns the north wall, together with a shouldered-arched vestry entrance. 19th-century tiles cover the altar platform. A fine, continuously double-moulded east lancet retains an original relief-sculpted cross beneath. Further 19th-century glass fills the chancel windows. An early 20th-century panelled reredos in Celtic Arts and Crafts style, designed by John Batten in memory of Miles Leonard Davies and carved by Mary Batten, Ada Ridley and Norah Bennett, was dedicated on 23 April 1911.

Detailed Attributes

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