St. Kentigern & St. Asaph Parish Church

St. Kentigern & St. Asaph Parish Church is a small, mainly Perpendicular church with earlier Gothic origins, dating back to the medieval period. It was extensively restored in 1872 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, with further minor restoration by Gronwy Griffith in 1911. The church is constructed of mixed random and coursed rubble masonry, primarily red sandstone on the south side and grey limestone on the north. It has a slate roof with wave-moulded gable parapets, quarter-round rope-moulding, kneeler details, and crucifix finials. A slightly ramped base is visible on the south side.

The church has twin gabled east and west ends. The southeast window is a 5-light panel tracery window, while the northeast window is a more pointed, double-cusped 4-light window subdivided above a transom. A double-cusped 3-light window with casement and roll mouldings sits above the southwest entrance, leading to boarded double doors with strapwork hinges. A plainer 3-light window is located on the northwest side. The south side features four 4-light windows with ogee tracery. On the north side, a 3-light window and a 2-light segmental headed window are positioned beside a gabled vestry, which includes ogee windows, angle buttresses, a tall ashlar chimney stack with a stellar flue, and one blocked window.

The churchyard contains a collection of 17th, 18th, and 19th century reset tombstones, some dating back to 1618.

Inside, the church retains a 5-bay arcade of two orders, with chamfer and cavetto arches on quarterfoil piers, deep hollows, and moulded capitals. The south aisle, known as St Asaph’s Church, has a hammerbeam roof featuring heart-shaped shields, stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, roll-moulded 4-tier purlins and rafters with some bosses, and arched collars with decorative openwork cusping above. A rood loft was originally present in the central bay, featuring large stone corbels and a lancet window with a deep splay, but it was removed in 1872 along with a 3-decker pulpit and a north aisle gallery. A carved timber reredos, Gothic traceried choir stalls, and a pulpit, all dated 1872, are also present. There are remains of a decorated double piscina. A possible Romanesque font bowl sits beside the inner porch, featuring a crenellated parapet. The north aisle, known as St Kentigern’s Church, has a false hammerbeam roof with long-pegged trusses and plainer details. The south aisle contains Lloyd family monuments, including one baroque style monument from around 1712 with a segmental pediment and festoons, and a Hanoverian oil on panel coat of arms, potentially of George III, above the south doorway. Further west is a Foulkes family classical monument dated between 1717 and 1746. The north aisle showcases a fine monument to Thomas Humphreys of Bodelwyddan (died 1698), featuring an oval tablet with surrounding putti holding back drapery. Victorian stained glass is present, including a window on the east side of the south side by Kempe, dated 1912, and another by H Hughes of 1877.