Church of Saint David

The Church of Saint David is a largely 14th or 15th century building, prominently featuring a fine tower. It is constructed of rubble stone with slate roofs, and limestone tracery. The church consists of a west tower, a nave, a chancel, and a north vestry.

The tower is notable for its high, battered base, a northeast stair tower, and a parapet corbelled on rough beach boulders, originally embattled in a style resembling Irish fortifications before 1871, and later topped with a slate pyramid roof in 1871. The west front contains a recessed, roll-moulded pointed doorway, a small two-light cusped window above, a loop window, and a two-light 15th century flat-headed cusped bell-opening. The south side has a similar loop and a two-light uncusped bell-light. The east side features a blocked opening partially obscured by the 1871 ridge line, and another two-light cusped bell-light. The north side incorporates the stair tower with a rounded, rendered cap and a single cusped bell-light.

The nave has coped gables, with five small cusped lancet windows on the north side. The south side has single-lights in addition to a pattern of traceried two-light windows arranged as 2, 2, 1, 1, 2. The chancel south side has a large two-light window, with ogee tracery, three eastern lancets, and a north lean-to vestry. The vestry has a two-light window to the east and west, and a round-headed door to the north.

The tower’s plaster vault contains a pointed doorway leading to the stair tower. The nave and chancel walls have been stripped of plaster, revealing the outlines of three earlier windows in the nave’s south wall, a low, cambered-headed door in the chancel’s south wall, and one chancel north window. The 1871-72 north windows have steeply sloped sills, while the south two-light windows are distinguished by trefoil-cusped rear arches. The church features 1871-72 open cradle roofs and a broad chancel arch with half-octagonal piers and a pointed, chamfered arch. There is one step up to the chancel, two to the sanctuary, and one to the altar, with some encaustic tiling present. A stone shelf recess with a trefoil head is located in the chancel north wall.

The church contains fittings dated 1871-72, including an ashlar octagonal font with roundels on the cardinal faces, a gloss-painted, U-plan open-fronted ashlar pulpit with ringed shafts and a moulded rail, and a gloss-painted stone reredos with a brattished cornice and a three-bay Gothic panelled front flanked by ringed shafts, featuring a raised cross in the central panel. High Victorian Gothic timber fittings include pews, stalls, kneelers, altar rails, and an altar; all are open-panelled. A later 19th-century organ by Conacher is located in the northwest corner.

Stained glass includes an east window of 1925 in a 15th-century style, dedicated to Bishop Lloyd of Bangor; and a nave south single light from 1955 by Celtic Studios.

Within the tower are salvaged pieces from an earlier church, including an outstanding 12th or 13th century font in poor condition, whitewashed and banded with iron. It has a square, chamfered bowl that transitions to an octagonal shape with incised outlining, resting on four excellently carved crouching lions. A tall inscribed stone, featuring a 10th-century high relief Latin cross incorporating a 6th-century inscription, is also present, although heavily eroded – it was read in the 19th century as Gurhirt or Gurist. A single Ogham letter ‘C’ is on the left side. Three monuments are also present; a black and white marble early 18th-century open pedimented monument to Richard Lloyd of Wern Newydd is on the north wall; on the south wall are monuments to Edward Longcroft of Llanina (died 1812), a marble oval with cornice and sarcophagus above; and Jane Davies (died 1753), a marble scrolled pedimented monument with pilasters, cartouche, and affixed ornaments.