St Mary's Church

St Mary's Church

A large town church in the accomplished Decorated style, consisting of an aisled nave without a clerestory and a tall south tower. The building is constructed of rough-dressed polygonal limestone blocks with sandstone dressings and a chamfered plinth. The roof is steeply pitched slate with shallower lean-to sections over the aisles and features coped and kneelered gable parapets with stone gable crosses to the east.

The gabled west front is divided into three bays by buttresses that mark the nave and aisle divisions. The central nave section has a shallow lean-to narthex between the buttresses in Early English style. A central doorway rises through the eaves under a coped gable, flanked by paired windows. The entrance has a pointed arch with moulded inner arch carried on engaged shafts with naturalistic foliage capitals and shaft rings, and a moulded label with carved head stops. Four steps lead to a pair of large vertically-boarded double doors with simple Gothic-style ironwork. The flanking arched windows are paired, with moulded labels featuring foliated stops, and simple capitals and bases to shafts. Above the narthex is a large pointed-arched six-light west window with complex geometric tracery and a moulded label with carved head stops. The aisles have simple two-light arched tracery windows with quatrefoil oculi to the heads. Below the north aisle window is a basement entrance with a shouldered arch and boarded door, accessed via descending steps.

Set-back buttresses at the corners have stepped copings and continue along the five-bay south and north aisles with quarry-dressed faces. The aisles have simple two-light windows in the first four bays and single lights in the fifth (easternmost) bays. Small projecting slab-coped lean-to porches with shouldered-arched entrances and boarded doors serve the eastern bays. A stepped-down chancel has a five-light arched tracery east window and similar set-back buttressing. Single two-light arched windows with oculi sit to the sides. Extruded into the angles between the chancel and aisles are the vestry and boiler house on the north side, and a large tower on the south side.

The south tower is a tall, three-stage square structure with buttresses and a battered base. Two-light arched tracery windows with geometric detail appear on the ground floor to the south and east, with lancets under shouldered arches to the first floor. The bell stage has three-light cusped arched tracery windows with vertical wooden slatting and a large clock dial on the west face. Above is a quatrefoil ocular parapet with crocketed, gabled and finalled octagonal pinnacles at the corners. A small square stair projection rises to half the tower height on the east side in the angle with the chancel, with a shouldered-arched entrance and boarded door to the south. The vestry is a lean-to projection from the north side of the chancel with a catslide roof and two shouldered-arched windows (one two-light and one single-light lancet). Extruded in front of this to the east is a lean-to basement boiler block with railed and stepped access.

The interior comprises a tall aisled nave lacking a clerestory, with five-bay north and south arcades. These have circular piers on moulded bases with foliated capitals and narrow pointed arches. The roof features ten bays with scissor trusses, each alternate one arched-braced onto shaped stone corbels; the aisle roofs are similarly detailed. The pavement is counter-changed tiled in red, black and yellow (presently obscured by carpeting), and the original simple fixed pews are of pitched pine. In the south aisle stands a circular stone pulpit in Early English style, carved by Thomas Earp to designs by the architects, with cusped niches, foliated spandrels and carved foliate frieze, supported on red and grey marble columns. A good octagonal Decorated-style pulpit, also by Earp, features deep blind tracery with foliate-carved diaper back panels and angel figures supporting a moulded cornice, with black and brown marble supporting columns. The base is inscribed "in memory of FHT 1867."

A large pointed chancel arch with foliated responds separates the nave from the stepped-up chancel. The chancel floor has encaustic tiling by Maw and Company (mostly carpeted) and a cluster truss roof. Contemporary simple Gothic choirstalls with open arcading and oculi feature poppy-headed bench ends. The stepped-up sanctuary beyond has fine encaustic tiling by Maw and Company. Moulded oak altar rails on polychromed iron and brass Gothic-style supports define the space. A fine tripartite retable, carved by Earp, depicts the Crucifixion with flanking biblical scenes in relief under canopied niches with heavy cusping, ball flower and foliate carving. Paired pink marble columns divide the three niches, with scroll-bearing angel figures above and crocketed gables. Flanking sections of four-panel blind tracery arcading flank the retable. North and south chapels open off from the chancel with pointed arches towards the chancel and aisles; the north chapel contains the organ while the south chapel sits beneath the bell tower. The late 19th-century organ is in simple Gothic style with polychromed pipes and was enlarged by John Bellamy, organ builder of Denbigh, in 1909.

The stained and painted glass includes a fine east window by John Hardman (1874) depicting scenes from the Passion and dedicated to John Heaton of Plas Heaton (died 1855), and a west window by J V Rowlands and Company (1880) showing scenes from the life of Christ with paired apostles in an arcade at the bottom. A two-light window in the south aisle towards the east is by J Ballantine and Son (1891) and is dedicated to Frances Wynne (died 1878). The north aisle contains a double-light and a single-light window dedicated to Arthur E Turmour (died 1894) and Colonel Robert Wills (died 1890). At the western end of the north aisle is a two-light window by Christopher Whall (1918) commemorating Anna Maria Story of Goppy (died 1918), while the opposing south aisle window is by Veronica M Whall (1933) in memory of the Jones family of Bodlinfa. At the west end is a large Great War memorial framing the entrance.

A large section of a Tudor dossal hangs in the south aisle within a glazed frame. This piece is known to have been at St Hiliary's Church at Denbigh Castle since at least 1846 and is reputed to have originated there. This highly important textile is one half of a large dossal known to have been intact until the late 19th century; an engraving of the complete hanging was made for the Gentleman's Magazine in 1846. The right-hand section (now lost) was dated 1530. Of probable Flemish workmanship, the dossal consists of finely-woven tapestry with a repeat design of IHS monograms within an early Renaissance border featuring floral and cornucopia motifs. Two mottoes in speech texts at the top and bottom read "Spes Mea In", the complete text being recorded as "Spes Mea In Deo Est 1530".