Church of St Paul

Cadw's description

Location

Located at the main cross-roads in Gorsedd and to the SW.

History

In 1849 Lord Fielding (later the 8th Earl of Denbigh) and Lady Fielding founded St David's Church, Pantasaph, in honour of their marriage. One year later they converted to Catholicism, and following legal action, the church became Roman Catholic. Money was raised by public subscription throughout England and Wales to build two parish churches in lieu, at Gorsedd and Brynford. Both were built in 1852-3 to the design of T H Wyatt, along with a rectory and school.

Exterior

Gothic revival parish church. Nave, chancel, NW steeple containing porch, and N vestry. Constructed of snecked grey stone with sandstone dressings under slate roofs, the windows with Geometrical tracery. Detail includes a moulded plinth, sill band, plain eaves cornice and angle buttresses with offsets. Most of the windows have 2 cusped lights and a cinquefoil in plate tracery under a pointed arch, the hoodmoulds with foliate end stops.

Two-stage tower supporting a broach spire, the lower stage with set-back buttresses. Pointed-arched doorway to N side with 3 orders of mouldings, the central ones on attached shafts with ringed capitals and bases, the capitals with dog-tooth enrichment. It contains double planked doors with iron strap hinges. Above the doorway is a pair of cusped lancets. Single cusped lancet to W face. The upper stage is narrower, rising from offsets, and has a Lombard frieze. Each face has a 2-light louvre plate-traceried opening in the same style as the windows, the hoodmoulds without end stops. The spire has a lucarne to each face and is surmounted by a finial and weather vane.

The N side of the nave has 3 plate-traceried windows separated by buttresses. The chancel is lower and narrower. To the R is the gabled vestry with basement storey. Chamfered pointed-arched doorway to N gable end under a hoodmould. Three steps up to planked door. Raised copings and kneelers to gable, with end stack supporting 2 polygonal dressed stone shafts. To the E side of the vestry is a pair of cusped lancets, in front of which are stone steps leading down to the basement. To the L is a planked door under a Tudor-arched head with chamfer, to the R of which is a small window in the same style. To the L of the vestry, the chancel has a pair of cusped lancets, the hoodmould with foliate end stops. The E end has clasping buttresses and an ornate cross finial to the gable apex. Three-light E window in bar tracery with a large sexfoil flanked by 2 trefoils.

The S side of the chancel has 2 windows as N side, separated by a buttress. The nave has 3 windows as N side of nave, along with buttresses, and a single cusped lancet to the far R. Asymmetrical W end, with angle buttress between tower and nave and another to the centre of the gable end. Between these is a lean-to baptistery with a 2-light window under a gablet. Above the lean-to is a shallow-arched opening with a cinquefoil above 2 trefoils in plate tracery. To the R of the lean-to is a tall window as elsewhere. In the gable apex is a circular window containing a cusped sexfoil.

Interior

The nave has a 6-bay arch-braced roof on moulded corbels. The chancel arch has 2 orders of chamfer, the inner order on moulded capitals. Hoodmould with foliage stops. The chancel has closely-spaced scissor-braced trusses. In the W wall of the nave, adjacent to the N doorway, is a segmental arched recess with 2 small windows lighting the font.

The font has an octagonal bowl with alternate quatrefoils and trefoils, and a stem of clustered shafts with moulded caps and bases. The pews have moulded straight-headed ends, while the choir stalls and priest's stall have poppy heads. The polygonal wooden pulpit has blind cusped arches which have quatrefoils in the spandrels.

In the W window is glass bearing the Victorian coat of arms and dated 1853, restored by Linley Glass Studios. Three windows have stained glass of the 1990s and are all by W Wilson of Linley Glass Studios. The E window, c1990, shows Christ in Heaven. In the nave S wall is a window showing 'Suffer the Children' c1996, while the N wall shows the shipwreck of St Paul, c1992.

Reason for designation

Listed as a good example of a High Gothic parish church of relatively early date, for its historic interest in connection with the Pantasaph controversy, and for group value with the vicarage and church hall.