Church of St Tyrnog

Church of St Tyrnog

The church is a double-naved example of the Vale of Clwyd type, built in New Red Sandstone with roughcast rendering and slate roofs. There is no exterior distinction between nave and chancel. A timber-framed porch of 19th-century date stands at the south. The gables are coped, with the gable to the east of the north nave carrying a finial cross. A 19th-century double bellcote sits at the west end of the north nave, with a 19th-century chimney to the south of the south nave. One buttress rises on the north side. An original doorway at the west end of the north nave survives, having been re-opened during the 19th-century restoration.

All the windows date from the 19th-century restoration. The main east window of the north nave is in Perpendicular style, closely following the medieval original, comprising five lights with a close-fitting label mould with head-stops. The south nave window has three lights with a label mould lacking stops. Three windows on the north side and the eastern window of the south side have square heads with simple label moulds everted at the ends, their lights featuring cusped or ogee heads. The other two windows of the south side have four-centred arches. At the west end, a small two-light window sits above the west door in the north nave, with a large five-light traceried window in the south nave.

The south porch, designed by Nesfield, is timber-framed above a tall plinth wall of stone. Small panels beneath the eaves are positioned above close studding with a brattished tie beam. The panels are rendered in pink parget with a variety of circular motifs, with similar motifs appearing on timber brackets supporting the cantilevered projections of the wallplates. The porch features a deep verge with bargeboards. The porch door has a four-centred arch with simple wrought iron hinges and studded battens. The west door displays fine wrought iron hinges in early Gothic style.

The church is entered through the south porch, which is paved in small red quarry tiles. Two dissimilar medieval roof trusses survive, one possibly from each of the two original porches. The purlins have run-out carved chamfer mouldings. The main door within the porch has a two-centred arch.

The interior is dominated by its roof carpentry. The north nave comprises ten bays and the south nave eight, with trusses in both featuring braced collar beams and each roof slope carrying two purlins with cusped wind bracing. The naves are separated by an arcade of five arches on octagonal columns, imitating the earlier arcade but with greater regularity of design. The floor is stone, mostly carpeted. The naves are pewed as one, arranged in three banks of pews. An octagonal carved Gothic pulpit with iron handrail, designed by Nesfield, stands to the left of the chancel step in the north nave, with a lectern to the right, also by Nesfield.

Two steps lead up to the chancel in the north nave, flanked by low walls on each side. Choir stalls occupy both sides, with formalised poppyheads at the ends of the men's stalls. Gothic floral motifs are shallowly indented in the brass Communion rails, which have no gate. The sanctuary floor is of red, white and black tiles with inset lozenge panels of encaustic tiles representing the four evangelists. The altar step is also in encaustic tiles, with a cladding of embossed arabesque green and blue tiles covering the full width of the east wall in the style of 16th-century Moorish cuenca tiles, as used elsewhere by Nesfield; these were probably manufactured by Maw & Co of Jackfield.

The south nave is closed at the east by a Gothic vestry screen, with the organ at the left and children's pews at the right. The font is 19th-century Gothic, octagonal in yellow limestone, standing on a raised plinth at the west end.

The stained glass in the east window of the chancel is medieval, restored in the 19th century and again recently, featuring the Crucifixion at the centre. The themes present include both the Apostles' Creed and the Seven Sacraments, though the other lights are somewhat jumbled. Glynne noted in 1847 the sentence "venturus est judicare vivos ...". The stained glass in the other windows dates from the 19th-century restoration. The window nearest the west in the north side depicts St Tyrnog holding his church.

Numerous wall monuments in marble or brass adorn the church, including one with arms above a broken pediment to Henry Powell of Glan-y-wern, dated 1749; another in Classical form with arms and an urn to Edward Maddocks of Vron, armiger, dated 1758; and another in Regency style to Richard Edmunds of Pentre-mawr, dated 1815. At the west is a monument to Sir J Ashpool, dated 1722, in Classical style with cornice and side scrolls, and one to John Ashpoole in the form of a lifted veil. Another in Regency style to Thomas Evans of Cotton Hall, dated 1831, features a lamp. A large lozenge hatchment is displayed in the south nave.

A notice in the porch records a grant from the ICBS in 1876.