Church of St Padarn

Church of St Padarn

A parish church of impressive scale and spacious interior, constructed of snecked rough-faced local rubblestone with pink sandstone ashlar dressings. The slate roofs feature stepped ashlar coping and foliated and Celtic crosses to the gables. The building is heavily buttressed throughout and follows a basic cruciform plan in late Early English style.

The church is dominated by its central tower, of which only the belfry stage is visible externally. The belfry has two louvred pointed windows to each face, linked by a thin continuous string course with hollow-chamfered arches supported on two full shafts and one engaged shaft with capitals and bases. A plain moulded corbel table sits above, crowned with a pyramidal slate roof and decorative wrought-iron weathervane behind an embattled parapet.

The entrance to the nave on the north side is through a gabled porch with a trefoil-headed arch set within a larger arch. The double doors have elaborate iron door furniture, including inward radiating strap hinges with fleur-de-lys points and Celtic motifs. The porch sits within a larger partially hip-roofed structure projecting from the north wall of the nave. To the right in this wall is a circular window containing a cinquefoil within, with two lancets to the right of this. The west wall of the nave has a double-chamfered rounded arch and hoodmould over a plain tympanum with joggled masonry and a heavily foliated cross. Double doors with similar but plainer ironwork than those on the north side are set here, with a slate stone dated "1914" to the right. The upper part of the west wall is slightly recessed and has three stepped broad lancets with a quatrefoil above. The south wall has four grouped quatrefoils in Caernarfon arches forming a horizontal run over part of the full-length lean-to aisle (the lady chapel), which has four paired small lancets to its south wall. A broad lancet to the west wall bears a stone recording that the chapel was built by Trevor Hughes, Squire of Glascoed in 1914.

The north transept has a full-width round-headed window with seven stepped lancets within, below a high-level string course. Above this are three grouped lancets with continuous hoodmould. A battlemented octagonal stair turret stands at the north-east corner. The west wall has a single lancet, and another lancet appears to the east wall in the angle with the stair turret.

The chancel has a full-height lean-to organ chamber on the north with a single lancet to the north wall and paired lancets beneath a quatrefoil to the east wall. A small semi-circular projection with conical roof sits in the angle with the eastward continuation of the north chancel wall, which has a tall lancet to each side of a stepped buttress. Three broad lancets appear to the east wall above a high string course; low down below this is a datestone of 1884, with a quatrefoil to the gable. The south wall of the chancel is largely obscured by a lower parallel vestry, which has three grouped lancets with a cinquefoil above to the east wall. A ventilation slit appears to the apex and a narrow rectangular window to the right of the lancets. The entrance is through a pointed doorway on the south side in a slightly projecting break, with three grouped lancets to the left. The south wall of the south transept has four stepped lancets with roundels containing trefoils and a quatrefoil window to the interstices. Above is a high string course with three grouped lancets and a continuous hoodmould as on the north transept. Single small lancets appear to the east and west walls.

Interior

The interior is impressively large and spacious. The walls are of exposed stone rubble with banded stonework and pink sandstone ashlar to the arches, windows and doorways. The nave has a panelled wagon roof with arch bracing and pendants; similar roofs appear on the transepts. The crossing and chancel roofs have cusping to the archbraces, the latter more heavily ribbed than others. The floors are of wood block to the nave and transepts; quarry tiles appear in the raised chancel and encaustic tiles in the sanctuary.

A massive west crossing arch in three orders with three tiers of engaged shafts is the dominant internal feature, from which also spring in turn the transept and chancel arches. Moulded capitals and bases sit on each tier of shafts with shaft-rings to the upper tier. The transept arches are contained within wide strainer buttress arches encompassing smaller arches to east and west. Further buttress arches in the east and west walls of the transepts incorporate pointed arches: that on the east side of the north transept encloses the organ; that to the east on the south side is mostly infilled with solid masonry but also contains two small pointed arches, the one to the south blind and the one to the north opening into the vestry. On the west side of the south transept the pointed arch leads to the lady chapel, and the corresponding arch on the north gives access to the projection on the north side of the nave.

The late medieval font comes from the old church at Nant Peris (it was for a time in the Rectory garden) and comprises a dark granite octagonal bowl on a lighter-coloured octagonal pedestal. The pulpit and choir stalls are late 19th century; the altar rails and panelled reredos, continued to the side walls of the sanctuary, serve as a 1914–18 war memorial. The stained glass in the east window depicts Christ in Majesty, flanked by St Padarn to the north and St Peris (Beris) to the south. A 1910 Llanberis Mothers' Union banner is displayed within the sanctuary. The present high altar, to the west of the chancel steps, is a panelled chest. Two Romano-British bronze patellae in a glass display chest sit in the south transept.

A plain wall tablet on the east wall of the north transept commemorates Rev E B Thomas (d.1908), and a brass plaque on the south pier of the west arch to the south transept commemorates John Rowlands, who died of enteric fever at Durban, South Africa in 1900.