Parish Church of St Grwst

Parish Church of St Grwst

This is a medieval parish church comprising a nave and chancel of uniform height, a 19th-century north aisle, a west tower, a south porch, and the Gwydir Chapel at the southeast corner. The church is built in random grey rubble with pale limestone dressings, while the tower uses roughly coursed rubble with limestone dressings, and the Gwydir Chapel is constructed in coursed dark grey stone with pale limestone dressings.

The west tower rises three storeys and features castellations stepped up to the west supporting a cross. It has diagonal buttresses and two windows on each side of the bell stage. The stage band is stepped up to the west above a 2-light window, with single-light windows in the north and south elevations. The bottom-stage windows have square lintels with Gothic arches below.

The south elevation of the nave displays square-headed windows with hoodmoulds. To the left of the porch is a 19th-century window of two cinquefoil lights; to the right of the porch is a 15th-century window of three cinquefoil lights, and to the right of this is a 19th-century window of three lights in early 16th-century style. The south porch is 19th-century with a gabled roof, timber above and stone below, and features a Gothic arched entrance doorway. The nave to the northeast of the tower has a window of three 3-centre arch lights.

The north aisle has a window with Y-tracery in its west gable. To the north are two 3-light windows with conventionalised panel tracery above in free late Perpendicular style, with a stepped buttress between them, and a similar 2-light window to the left. The west gable of the aisle has a Tudor-style arched doorway and, to the left, a 2-light window with panel tracery above. The nave's east window dates to around 1500 and has four lights with a brattished transom and panel tracery above.

The Gwydir Chapel at the southeast corner is in late Perpendicular style with a castellated parapet, pinnacles to the south, and stepped buttresses. Its east elevation has a large broad window of four cinquefoil cusped lights with panel tracery above. The two bays to the south elevation each have a 3-light window in the same style. The west elevation has a window matching the east elevation and, to the right, a round-headed entrance doorway with a heraldic shield above inscribed with a record of the chapel's founding and a smaller shield to the left of the doorhead.

The church sits in an attractive churchyard beside the river, containing yew trees and good early 19th-century box tombs and tombstones, including an obelisk. In the east wall of the churchyard is a 17th-century grey stone plaque bearing a Lamb of God, formerly the badge of Jesus Hospital.

Interior

The church nave retains a 15th-century arch-braced roof with small cusped wind braces. The north aisle, dating to the 1880s, has a lighter roof in similar style with elongated octagonal piers supporting an arcade of three bays. A wooden panelled altar and reredos occupies the east end. To the north of the chancel is an organ chamber and vestry, while to the south is the entrance to the Gwydir Chapel.

At the entrance to the chancel stands a late 15th or early 16th-century lofted rood screen, one of the finest in Wales. The loft has a vine-trail rail and a parapet with vaulted and pinnacled niches. The parapet sits on a bressumer decorated with vine trail and oak-leaf and acorn bands. The screen comprises twelve bays with open traceried heads—one depicting the instruments of Passion and another showing pigs eating acorns—and canopies with vaulting and panelled soffit, with straight-sided pendant arches to the west. At the centre is a doorway with a square frame and cambered head. Some open traceried panels in the wainscoting flank the doorway. Stone stairs to the north date from the 19th-century restoration. To the west of the nave is 19th-century wooden panelling to the tall round-headed tower arch.

Gwydir Chapel Interior

The Gwydir Chapel retains 17th-century fixtures and fittings in a characterful Artisan Renaissance style. A very low-pitched camber-beam roof is panelled with decorative bosses, heraldic shields, the date '1634', and initials 'I:W' and 'R:W'. To the west, the beam is supported by two square posts. The stone-flagged floor comprises alternating slabs of grey slate and brown lias stone.

To the north, a broad arch connects to the body of the church, with wooden panelling and a door with unmitred mouldings. A wooden sculpture of an eagle surmounts the door. Wall panelling rises to approximately 1.5 metres high with pierced and traceried upper panels. Stalls with pierced fronts to round-headed arches have finials in the form of heads. A lectern features a front similar to the wall panelling. A wooden communion table has turned legs. A low stone table supports an alabaster effigy of an infant, Sydney Wynn, who died in 1639.

Near the entrance from the churchyard is a fine 13th-century coffin, said to be that of Llewelyn the Great, with sunk quatrefoil panelling. An effigy of a knight, said to be Hywel Coetmore (circa 1440), shows him in plate and mail armour with a dog at his feet.

On the south wall is a monument to Sir John Wynn and his wife Sydney, featuring two enriched obelisks with heraldic finials, inscribed oval bosses and cherub heads below, and behind them a tablet with an angel head and skull and crossed bones. Near the northeast corner, a marble tablet by Nicholas Stone, set in a crude outer frame, records the history of the chapel. Below this tablet is a rectangular engraved brass with a three-quarter portrait of Sarah Wynn (died 1671) by William Vaughan, set in an engraved cartouche with winged cherubs and other decoration. Around the walls are lozenge-shaped brasses with portrait heads of Sir John Wynn (died 1626), Sydney Wynn (died 1632), Sir Owen Wynn (died 1660), Katherine Lewis (died 1669), and Mary Mostyn (died 1653), the last signed by Silvanus Crue.