St Brothen's Church, Llanfrothen, is a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...

at the edge of the village of

Llanfrothen Llanfrothen () is a hamlet and Community (Wales), community in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, between the towns of Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog and is 108.1 miles (174.0 km) from Cardiff. In 2011 the population of Llanfrothen was 437 wi ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, 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 I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

because it is "a fine

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

church retaining much of exterior and interior interest". It is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

History

According to tradition, the church is built on a site founded in the late 6th century by Saint Brothen, reputedly one of the seven sons of the legendary Helig ap Glanawg. Most of the fabric of the present church dates from the 13th century. It was re-roofed in the 15th century, and the south porch and the bellcote were probably added in the 17th century. The church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...

in 1844, and a further restoration took place later in the same century when new windows were installed in the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and the floor was tiled. It was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property are acquired by some Legal person, person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vest ...

with the

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

the Friends of Friendless Churches in 2002, who hold a 999-year

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

with effect from 1 January 2005. The churchyard is the resting place of Richard Humphreys and Margaret Wynn, parents of Humphrey Humphreys who was

Bishop of Bangor The Bishop of Bangor is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Diocese of Bangor of the Church in Wales. The Episcopal see, see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Bangor Cathedral, Cathedral Church of Sa ...

and then

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

Architecture

Exterior

St Brothen's Church is built on a site that slopes from the west to the east, and the floor of the church slopes correspondingly. It is constructed in local stone, with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The plan of the church consists of a simple rectangle forming the nave and the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, and it has a south porch. It measures long by wide. On the west

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

is a double bellcote. The east window is a triple lancet, the central window being larger than the others; the west window is a single lancet. In the north wall is a blocked doorway.

Interior

Inside the church are old-fashioned

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s, some of which date from the 19th-century restoration, while others were reconstructed at that time from 17th and 18th-century box pews. The floor is tiled with red and black Victorian quarry tiles. The octagonal stone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

dates from the 15th century and is in English Gothic

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

style. The oak

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

is also octagonal, simple in design, and dates from the 17th century. Also in oak is the reading desk, dated 1671. Behind the 15th-century altar is a

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

consisting of a curved beam supported by two medieval

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar around which a helical staircase winds. It can also refer to an upright post that supports or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post") ...

posts. Between the nave and the chancel is a

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

, again in oak, with a central opening and four further openings on each side. Tree-ring dating has shown that the wood used for making it came from trees felled between 1496 and 1506.

References

External links

Plan of the church drawn in the 1840s

Church quest by Terry Miles, April 2023
{{DEFAULTSORT:Llanfrothen, Saint Brothen 13th-century church buildings in Wales Grade I listed churches in Gwynedd Former churches in Wales English Gothic architecture in Gwynedd Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches St Brothen's Church