Parish Church of St Martin

Cadw's description

Location

Prominently located in the centre of the village within a rubble-walled churchyard.

History

A Medieval church on the site was rebuilt c1782 (when rededicated), though this incorporated earlier work at the W end; the builder/designer was Hugh Williams of Conway. A porch addition was added to the S in 1837 and R. Lloyd Williams, architect of Denbigh, inserted Gothic tracery in the nave windows in 1881-2, as part of a general restoration conceived in 1874.

Exterior

Rubble construction with sandstone dressings and wide, slated roof to continuous, aisled nave and chancel; coped and kneelered gable parapets with stone Celtic cross surmounting E gable. 4-bay N and S sides with round-arched windows containing leaded tracery windows in Decorated style; 2-lights with quatrefoil above. Similar 3-light E window. High up at the W end, are 2-light arched-headed windows, presumably from the earlier church. S porch with coped and kneelered gable parapet and gable cross; slate roof. Stopped-chamfered reveals to pointed-arched opening and above, a stone plaque with inscribed date 1837. Round-arched inner doorway with plain impost blocks and keystone and flush 4-panel C18 door with C19 decorative ironwork. W tower with simply-moulded stringcourse and coping to parapet with obelisks at the corners; flagpole and weathervane. Extruded between the W wall and the tower are, on the S side, a former bier house, with hipped roof and boarded door, and on the N, a C19 boiler house.

Interior

Continuous nave and chancel with flanking aisles; slate-flagged floors. Plain round-arched arcades carried on square sandstone piers with moulded abaci. Coved plaster ceiling to nave/chancel; flat ceilings to aisles. Simple Victorian pitch-pine pews and octagonal font, together with reading desk and lectern. Plain late-Victorian organ by T.A. Ewing of Glasgow and Dumbarton. Early-Medieval octagonal stone font, re-used from the earlier church, with inscribed date 1731. On the W wall, a fine Royal Arms hatchment of George III, dated 1816. Stepped-up sanctuary and altar plinth with Victorian decorative tiles; oak altar rails with plain turned balusters. Large-field panelling behind altar with flanking, small-field panelling. Modern figurative glass to the E window with, to the L, a marble wall tablet to John Forbes of Bodnod, veteran of the American wars of Independence, d. 1823. A wooden well stair hugs the tower walls from first stage to the bell storey; flat, shaped balusters and oak rail (probably re-used earlier C18 material).

Reason for designation

A late C18 parish church in a prominent village location.