Church of St. Twrog

Church of St. Twrog

This is a late 19th century parish church built in 1896, comprising a four-bay nave with a west tower clasping it, a narrower chancel, a southwest porch, and a northeast outshut housing the vestry entrance. The building is constructed of rubble masonry with sandstone dressings. The porch is half-timbered on a stone plinth base. The roof is slate with feathered eaves and stone copings; the bell tower and spire have slate hung elevations; the porch has advanced verges with shaped bargeboards.

The nave has four bays, each with a Perpendicular pointed arched window of two lights. The east and west windows are similarly detailed windows of three lights with cusped tracery; the west window is recessed under a double arch flanked by raking buttresses. The chancel has single ogee headed lights in a pointed arched frame. The west tower has rectangular leaded lights lighting the staircase up to the bell tower, with a plain doorway below having chamfered jambs.

The half-timbered porch has curving angle braces to a carved head at the outer doorway, which bears the inscription "IN : DOMINO : CONFIDO". The door jambs have moulded angles and the timberwork is pegged. The inner doorway has a datestone above bearing the inscription "THE NAVE OF THIS CHURCH WAS / REBUILT ON OLD FOUNDATIONS / WITH THE ADDITION OF CHANCEL / TOWER AND SPIRE · AD · 1896 ·".

The church has an exposed roof of arched braced trusses with moulded braces and posts above the collars. The nave comprises three roof bays and the chancel two, with side aisles separated from the nave by timber piers with arch braced angle struts. Above the side aisles are painted plaster panels with timber dividers, each bearing decorative motifs. Those along the nave have decorative foliate motifs with cusped ogee headed surrounds; the chancel panels depict the Ten Commandments.

The chancel is raised by a single step and has the organ room to the south, with a pulpit at the northwest corner and vestry to the left. The woodwork at the east end of the church is particularly fine. The loft room and vestry have Tudor arch headed doorways to the centre of their west walls, which have ogee headed panels under billeted coping. The angles have ornately carved pillars and the side walls have shaped balusters with ornate foliate pierced carving between.

The sanctuary is raised by a further two steps and has a brass rail on twisted stanchions with foliate brackets. The reredos has finely carved panels depicting scenes from the Incarnation, The Worship of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Magi, with the words "THY WILL BE DONE" in fine mosaic. A reading desk at the right side of the sanctuary has an ornately carved and pierced pelmet, with an ogee headed recess to its left. The pulpit has carved panels including one depicting St. Twrog. The choir stalls have carved ends. On the left wall are a pair of recessed slate panels within a shaped surround, reset from the earlier church, bearing shields of arms and inscriptions dated 1703.

Other notable memorials, reset from the earlier church, are located along the north wall of the nave and chancel. These include a shaped stone tablet with foliate surround, surmounted by an urn and with cherub heads and wings below, to Anne, daughter of Evan Evans of Tanybwlch and wife of Thomas Meyrick of Berthlwyd Esq., died 1743. There is an ornate marble memorial surmounted by urn and obelisk to Robert Gruffydd of Tanybwlch, eldest and only surviving son of Evan by Jonett, eldest daughter and co-heir of Thomas Meyrick, died 1750. A bronze tablet commemorates Thomas Meyrick, died 1766, and another bronze tablet Robert Gruffydd of Plas Tanybwlch, died 1770. Other memorials and the glass belong to the late 19th and 20th centuries.