Parish Church of St Wddyn

Parish Church of St Wddyn

St Wddyn's church stands on sloping ground descending to the east. It is built in a free Arts and Crafts interpretation of Early English style, distinguished by battered walling to the porch and chancel, and prominent additions to the nave and chancel.

The masonry is rock-faced local slate laid in slightly irregular courses with many sloping joints in place of perpends, and features sandstone dressings. Gable buttresses project from the west and south elevations. An apsidal string course runs at sill level. The roofs are slate with sprocketted eaves and lead dressings to hips and valleys. Gables and verges are coped, with an iron cross finial at the east end and a stone cross over the west end.

The chancel is slightly lower than the nave and terminates in an octagonal apsidal end. To the south lies an aisle beneath a lower-pitched roof, a boldly projecting porch, and a south transept. To the north is a lean-to vestry above a basement housing the heating apparatus. The chancel and vestry stand well above adjacent ground level, served by outside stairs. A prominent eastern single bellcote with a coped gable dressed in copper marks the articulation between nave and chancel.

Windows to the east are short, wide trefoil-headed lights, paired in the east wall and set singly in the flanks beneath prominent eaves. The nave displays three single broad lancets to the north, while the south aisle has two pairs of shorter similar lights. Three tall lancets grouped in the west wall stand under a relieving arch, and a pair with a roundel above in the south transept also shelters beneath a relieving arch; a single small light stands to the east of the transept. The porch is partially timber-framed. The main entrance doorway is in Norman style—with a very slight Transitional point—comprising two orders with cushion capitals and zig-zag decoration on the face of the inner order arch, and prominent wrought iron door hinges.

The interior, entered by the south door, comprises a nave and south aisle with a three-arch arcade but pewed as one, a chancel and short sanctuary, a vestry behind a screen to the north, and an organ in the south transept. The lowness of the windows creates a dark interior. Brick interior walls are banded with slate, with the bottom of the walls painted a dark colour.

The nave features a herringbone wood-block floor and plain pews, with the pulpit positioned at the left. The roof spans three and a half bays and incorporates ties, king posts, and scissor beams. Two steps ascend to the chancel, with one further step to the sanctuary. A broad and tall chancel arch of cream-coloured stone with octagonal responds is matched by a similar arch on corbels to the sanctuary. Both chancel and sanctuary ceilings are facetted with blue panels speckled with stars and cream-coloured ribs. The floors feature decorated tiles including encaustic tiles in the chancel and sanctuary. Choir stalls incorporate carvings of trails and bosses said to have been recovered from the gallery of the old St John's church. The sanctuary has sill-height wainscot behind the altar and on the flanking walls. Nook columns to the east window have black slate shafts. A small aumbry is set in the north side, with two sedilia in the south side. Gateless altar rails stand on metal standards.

The stained glass comprises a good set of signed work by Curtis, Ward and Hughes. The commemorative west window to G F Deacon, donated by his widow and children and dated 1909, features the text "and he wrought all the work". The centre window on the north side also commemorates Deacon and features the text "whoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst." The aisle windows to the south are glazed with coloured quarries. One brass plaque is mounted on the north wall.