History

Small estate church built 1863-4 for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, the sixth Baronet (of Plas-yn-Cefn) by Benjamin Ferrey. Ferrey was architect also of the Victorian Wynnstay, another Williams-Wynn commission. The church was designed in simple lancet and plate tracery style.

Exterior

Small cruciform church in simple plate-tracery Gothic style. Constructed of rough-dressed limestone blocks, the choir snecked and with chamfered plinth; limestone dressings. Steeply-pitched slate roof with slab-coped gable parapets; simple coved eaves with corbelling to polygonal apse. The nave has 2 two-light pointed-arched plate tracery windows to the S and 3 similar windows to the N side, with punched trefoils within oculi above cusped lights; stopped labels with alternating naturalistic foliate carvings and head stops. Single-storey porch to the S side with pointed-arched entrance with triple arch and semi-octagonal engaged columns; moulded abaci and bases. The outer entrance has a returned hood-mould with carved head stops; vent oculus to the gable apex with splayed croos tracery. Shallow, gabled transepts to S and, each with triangular tracery window containing three quatrefoils. Below that on the N side are two basement entrances giving access to boiler rooms etc. To the R of the transept is a small, squat chimney, its stack removed. Stepped buttresses to polygonal apse at E end, with tall lancets to each face.

Interior

The interior is restrained, but essentially unaltered. Tall nave with 4-bay arched-braced collar truss roof, the trusses carried on moulded stone corbels; there is bracing above the collar forming a pointed arch and a trefoil at each apex. Original, simply-decorated pine pews and central red tiled pavement with edging and insets in black and yellow. The font is in the form of a life-sized white marble sculpture of a winged angel kneeling and holding a scallop; by Theobald Stein, signed and dated 1864, after the original by his master Thorwaldsen. Early-English-style sandstone pulpit, of square plan and of 2 stages, with stiff-leafed carved frieze and grey figured marble columns applied to the corners. The shallow N transept contains a small vestry with cluster-truss roof and double-moulded, pointed-arched entrance; it is screened off from the nave by a 4-part boarded and panelled screen partition, with simple blind tracery arcade and stopped-chamfered stiles and rails, the entrance to bay 3. The corresponding S transept is occupied by an organ of 1902 by Peter Conacher and Co of Huddersfield, a commemorative gift by Sir Herbert Watkin Williams-Wynn; polychromed pipes.
Polygonal apse, raised up and approached via 3 steps; large chancel arch with hollow-chamfered, broach-stopped outer arch and chamfered inner arch, the latter supported half-hay up on fine, stiff-leafed carved capitals, themselves supported on engaged shafts resting on stiff-leafed corbels. Polychromed tiled floor, with simple brass altar rails on decorative scrolled and twisted supports. The apse is vaulted with a central carved, foliated boss and ribs carried on engaged corner shafts with capitals as before. The sanctuary is further stepped-up and has a complex patterned and polychromed tled floor and similar treatment to the dado walls flanking a tripartite reredos. The latter is of fine cosmati-work in 5 types of coloured marble inlay and has a central tondo of white marble, showing a Pieta in high, sculpted relief; Christ's inlaid monograms flank this and an inlaid marble cross surmounts it.
The apse and W windows have contemporary figurative stained glass, in C13 style, by Lavers and Barraud; the easternmost southern nave window is a commemorative, figurative window by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, of 1876.

Reasons for Listing

Included for its special architectural interest as a small, well-preserved estate church by a noted Victorian architect, in a striking location.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29497293

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments