Church of St Hilary

Cadw's description

Location

In a large churchyard N of the main settlement.

History

A church retaining some C13 fabric in the nave but mainly comprising post-Reformation additions, including the transepts. Extensive restoration took place in 1820, when the porch was added, 1860 and 1865. The latter restoration included new roofs, bellcote, E and possibly the present W window.

Exterior

A C19 Gothic cruciform church of rubble stone with bigger quoins, and slate roof. A corbelled W bellcote has a single bell under a gable with saddleback coping. The S porch has a coped gable, segmental arch with voussoirs, and C20 boarded doors with strap hinges. On the R of the porch the nave has 3-light and 2-light segmental-pointed windows with cusped tracery lights, and hood moulds. The W window is 2-light Decorated. On the N side, from the W end, is a 2-light square-headed window, a larger and later 3-light square-headed window, and 3-light square-headed window at the E end.
The S transept has a 2-light Decorated S window with hood mould, and a segmental-pointed E doorway with recessed boarded door, added in 1908. The buttressed chancel has a 3-light Decorated S window, and 3 stepped cusped lights to the E window. The N vestry has a roof concealed behind a coped parapet of tooled stone. Its E entrance has an ogee head to a boarded and studded door with strap hinges. On the N side is a cusped, square-headed window.
A vertical joint separates vestry from N transept. The transept has a 2-light Decorated N window, and a pair of cusped lights in the W wall above a lean-to boiler room.

Interior

Inside the porch, the S doorway has a Tudor arch with continuous chamfer, and boarded door with strap hinges. The main interior has whitened plastered walls. Arched-brace roofs are 4-bay to the nave, 2-bay to the chancel, with additional quatrefoil enrichment above the braces, and 1-bay to the transepts. The crossing and chancel have a decorative tile floor of 1865. The N transept (formerly known as the Penrhyn chapel) has a segmental-pointed boarded vestry door. In the chancel is a decorative tile reredos.
The freestone font is lead-lined, a round bowl on a later round pedestal. It was said by Robert Williams to have been the gift in the early C19 of Miss Frances Mostyn of Bodysgallen. Pews have shaped ends with notional poppy heads. The wooden lectern and pulpit are a pair. They have blind cusped arcading, and behind the pulpit are steps with a balustrade of cusped arches. The communion rail has cusped brackets and moulded rail. Flanking the altar are pointed wooden panels with painted Decalogue, Creed and Lord's Prayer.
A pointed niche in the nave S wall, W of the entrance, has a fragment of early medieval inscribed stone. Opposite, on the N wall, 4 medieval roof bosses have been attached to a wooden panel fixed to the wall.
There are numerous wall tablets. In the W wall is a re-set large engraved slab to members of the Wynne family of Bodysgallen, from mid C17 to early C18 (formerly in the chancel). Another re-set tablet on the W wall commemorates Roger Mostyn (d 1652) and Thomas Mostyn (d 1675).

Reason for designation

Listed at grade II* for its special architectural interest as a parish church in C19 style but with earlier origin, and of social-historical interest for its links with the Mostyn family of Bodysgallen and Gloddaeth.