History

Mid C14, late Decorated church with earlier origins. This was restored by James Harrison c1855-6 but was largely gutted by fire in 1857. The church was restored in Decorated style by Sir Gilbert Scott of London and was completed in 1859. A south porch was added to the south chancel aisle by Douglas and Fordham of Chester in 1896, in memory of a son of W E Gladstone, the Prime Minister. The Gladstone memorial chapel was added to the N side of the chancel to receive effigies of W E Gladstone and his wife Catherine. By Douglas and Minshull of Chester it was built between 1901-3. A vestry range was added to the N/E in 1909, also by Douglas and Minshull.

Exterior

Nave: Aisled nave of 3 bays plus crossing bay beneath central tower. This is mid C14 with later crenellated parapet and lead spire by Scott. Double lancet windows to each face with cusped, arched lights and further cusped transomes. Nave with castellated parapet and stepped buttresses to bay divisions. Moulded plinth. 2-light Decorated-style windows with simple curvilinear tracery. Decorative lead hoppers, some dated 1923. N and S entrances, the former with moulded arch and returned label. Double doors with Victorian Gothic ironwork. Sculptural group of Virgin and Child in canopied Gothic niche above. S porch, coped and gabelled with flush, stepped flanking buttresses. Moulded pointed-arched entrance with returned label. Canopied niche as before with figure of St Deiniol within.

Chancel: Chancel S aisle (Whitley Chantry), a 3-bay projecting chapel, probably the pre-fire remodelling by Harrison. Parapet as before. 3-light Perpendicular windows with returned labels. Small, gabelled entrance porch as before (Douglas and Fordham) with sculpted figure of Christ above in canopied niche flanked by relief-carved angels. Large stepped-buttresses between bays 2 and 3. Chancel with steep-pitched graded slate roof with moulded, coped gable to E end. Beneath Decorated E window a similar-style tripartite tabernacle-niche with relief sculpted depiction of the Ascension, flanked by angels on pedestals. Cusped, arched tracery lights. Attached to N of chancel, the Gladstone Memorial Chapel. In Decorated-style with simple triple lancets and Decorated tracery. Parapet, labels and buttresses as before. Adjoining to NE a single-storey vestry with 2 and 3 light cusped, arched-headed windows. All by Douglas and Minshull. W end gabelled as before. Victorian Perpendicular entrance with flat, returned label and blind tracery in spandrels. Door as before.

Interior

Nave and Crossing: octagonal piers to nave arcades, refaced post-fire by Scott. Fine Victorian stained glass by William Wailes, and further examples by Edward Frampton. W window with glass by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1898) set in complex flowing tracery, and depicting the Adoration of the Magi. 3-bay arch-braced collar truss roof carried on stone corbels. Tiered, cusped wind races. Strainer arches in aisles at crossing. Early English-style font by Scott, octagonal on stone column base, with attached marble columns. Fitted pews with carved, pierced quatrefoils to bench-ends. Renaissance pulpit by H S Goodhart-Rendel, c1951. Wooden rood with Crucifixion group by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, c1915-16. Panelled organ case with carved tracery to S-side of crossing. Decorated chancel arch with fine, mid-C14 corbel to N face with naturalistic foliage, and a Scott replacement to S.

Chancel and Gladstone Chapel: Clergy stall with carved bench-ends, that to the E high-quality, early C16 poppy-headed, with Pelican of Piety depiction and heraldic arms and foliate decoration beneath. Corresponding W end a C19 copy. Poppy-headed pews to chancel. Panelled waggon-vaulted roof. 5-niched stone and marble retable probably by Scott. Alabaster figure-group of the Last Supper flanked by SS Peter and Paul. Decorated finialed, crocketted and canopied niches. Large decorated tracery window to E with stained glass Crucifixion group by Morris and Co. to designs by Burne-Jones. Further glass by Morris and Co. to N-side chancel. Whitley chantry with Gothic dado panelling. Fine tomb chest to S with marble effigy of Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, Bart. (d.1874). W window dedicated to Captain C I Whitley Deans Dumdus, 1859, and in early 13-style. Flanking wall-paintings of harp-playing angels. Similar windows to S. Marble wall monument to Colonel Roger Whitley (erected 1722). Memorial slab flanked by Corinthian columns with moulded entablature and flanking foliated volutes. On carved consoles with central Acanthus pendentive. Further C17 wall monuments and brasses to Whitleys of Aston Hall. Leading off from chancel to N the Gladstones Memorial Chapel. Lierne-vaulted with canted apse with blind dado arcade. Stained glass by James Powell and Sons after designs by Sir William Richmond RA. Central alabaster chest tomb with attached bronze weepers and figurative relief panels to sides. Over life-size marble double effigy of W E Gladstone and his wife Catherine with Homeric angel at head, wings outstretched. A cross with a bronze Christ-figure surmounts the effigy. The whole designed by Sir William Richmond RA in 1906.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• St Deiniol's Church at Wikipedia
• St Deiniol's Church official website
• Wikidata Q7592949

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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