St Dunawd's Church, is in the village of
Bangor-on-Dee
Bangor-on-Dee ( cy, Bangor-is-y-coed or Bangor Is-coed) is a village and Community (Wales), community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, on the banks of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Until 1974 it was in the exclave of Flintshire (historic), F ...
,
Wrexham County Borough
Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the ...
, Wales. It is designated by
Cadw
(, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...
as a Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
. The church is an active
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
church in the deanery of Dee Valley, the archdeaconry of Wrexham and the
diocese of St Asaph
The Diocese of Saint Asaph is a diocese of the Church in Wales in north-east Wales, named after Saint Asaph, its second bishop.
Geography
The Anglican Diocese of St Asaph in the north-east corner of Wales stretches from the borders of Chester i ...
.
History
The church is built on the site of a
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...
which was established about 560 by St Dunawd, the first abbot of the monastery. The monastery was destroyed in about 616 by
Æthelfrith of Northumbria
Æthelfrith (died c. 616) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death. Around 604 he became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development of the later kingdom of Nort ...
when 1,200 monks were killed and only 50 escaped. No trace of this monastery exists.
In about 1300 a
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
church was built on the site of the monastery. The
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
...
from this building is still extant. The church was restored between 1723 and 1726 by Richard Trubshaw; this restoration included the
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...
. The north
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, pa ...
was altered in 1832.
The architect
John Douglas was married in the church in 1860 and in 1868 he carried out a restoration of the church.
This included the extension of the south aisle to form a
baptistery
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptism ...
[ and restoration of the chancel.]half-timbered
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
porch.[ In 1913 the ]vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
was built and the organ was repositioned.[
]
Architecture, furniture and fittings
The tower is built in brick and stone. It has round-headed bell-openings and urn
An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...
-like finials. The chancel has a five-light east window dating from the 14th century, and a two-light window on the south wall of the chancel. The north aisle, dating from 1832, has Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...
style windows.[
Internally, the stalls and rails date from 1868, while the pews and pulpit were added in 1877. The pulpit is carved with pierced ]tracery
Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...
panels and sunflower patterns.[ Douglas' organ screen was resited in 1913. The font cover was designed by Evelyn Wybergh. The former reredos dating from 1725 is now at the west end of the church. The brass lectern commemorates three brothers who died in the First World War.][
There is a ]ring
Ring may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
:(hence) to initiate a telephone connection
Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
of six bells. Four of these were cast in 1727 by Abraham Rudhall II, one was cast in 1811 by John Rudhall and the sixth was cast in 1865 by Mears and Stainbank
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...
.
External features
The churchyard contains six war grave burials registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...
; five from World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, including 3 brothers of the Ormrod family, and an officer of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry
The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. In 19 ...
of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bangor is y Coed, St Dunawd's Church
Grade II* listed churches in Wrexham County Borough
Church in Wales church buildings
John Douglas buildings