Church of St Foddhyd

Church of St Foddhyd

A restored late medieval church, without exterior differentiation of nave and chancel, built in uncoursed mixed local stonework with larger stones at quoins and some very large stones low in the walls. The roof is of slate with a tile ridge and coped gables, a finial at the east apex being missing. There is a slight plinth at east and west, with projecting stones at the foot of the corners at the west. An open bellcote above the west gable has a shallow pitched coping surmounted by an iron weathervane; it has a semicircular head to its opening facing west with a decoratively carved stone arch, but no corresponding carving to the east.

The east window is the only remaining original window, of the Perpendicular period, in five lights with jambs in red sandstone and arch and tracery in yellow stone, the transom just above the springing line. The north window of the chancel is in two lights with tracery, restored but in an original aperture. The chancel south window is of three circular-headed lights. The four nave windows are each of two lights with trefoiled heads. The north doorway has a single chamfered four-centred arch. The south doorway is protected by a late 19th-century timber-framed porch on low plinth walls, open-fronted, with six leaded lights each side and a slate roof with red crest tile ridge. Both north and south doors are of oak with wrought iron hinges.

In the churchyard there are numerous chest tombs and some obelisks. The lychgate displays the date 1691 on its roof apex. There are also a war memorial and a sundial, separately listed.

The interior is a broad space without aisles, the nave and chancel structurally in one with no step at the screen. The late medieval roof is in nine bays with arch-braced collars and trefoils and a quatrefoil above the collar, cusped braces to the purlins, the timbers more decoratively detailed at the east end. The medieval rood screen survives as the dominant interior feature. It has double running bands of vine leaves in the frieze facing the nave, single on the side facing the chancel. The lights number five at each side with a double-width opening at centre, the latter with a four-centred tracery arch. The heads of the lights contain miniature tracery. The mid-rail is plain and there are pierced panels beneath. A board affixed on the east side records the initials and date WB SB 1692, probably referring to some alteration in the chancel. The rood loft does not survive, but the altar rails are a full-width set of panels carved in tracery which may have been taken from a rood loft; however, Glynne, visiting in 1855, made no mention of them.

Part of the nave is partitioned off as a vestry. Plain mid-19th-century pews throughout and similar choir stalls in the chancel. To the right of the nave is a pulpit marked and dated WR IH 1695, with timber steps. At the west of the nave is an octagonal font, perhaps 15th-century, the foot restored. At the centre of the nave is a wooden chandelier with the letters S T K R and the date 1725, hanging by a chain; the top detail grasping the chain and the corresponding bottom pendant are serpents' heads, the latter grasping an apple. This was removed from the vestry in the 20th century. A large oak dugout parish chest with wrought ironmongery is also present.

The stained glass includes a large quantity of finely coloured mixed glass in the upper lights of the east window, perhaps dated 1538. The south window of the chancel is in memory of the wife of Rev. T Hughes, dated 1865, with strongly coloured glass of dominant reds and blues by Holland of Warwick, showing the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John.

At the north of the chancel are three plaques, including one to Rev. Thomas Roberts, rector and chief master of Ruthin school, dated 1796: oval marble on a grey ground with a small urn above and fan below. On the north wall of the nave, within the vestry, is an Elizabethan wooden wall monument to Evan Lloyd ap Rice of Derwen Hall and his wife Gwen, dated 1576, with later descendants, in a frame painted with repeated skulls and crossed bones. The line "Glory be to God on High" appears at the head, and a hatchment surmounts the monument.

The Royal Arms of the period 1801–37, two boards recording benefactions to the poor written in Welsh and in English (1788) and an ICBS grant notice are displayed on the west wall.