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Latitude: 53.2502 / 53°15'0"N
Longitude: -4.5973 / 4°35'50"W
OS Eastings: 226810
OS Northings: 375719
OS Grid: SH268757
Mapcode National: GBR HN03.JX1
Mapcode Global: WH42P.CK1Q
Plus Code: 9C5Q7C23+33
Entry Name: Church of St. Gwenfaen
Listing Date: 5 April 1971
Last Amended: 3 June 1998
Grade: II
Source: Cadw
Source ID: 5326
Building Class: Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Also known as: St Gwenfaen's Church, Rhoscolyn
ID on this website: 300005326
Location: Stands in a prominent location above the road in the small hamlet of Rhoscolyn in the SW part of the parish.
County: Isle of Anglesey
Community: Rhoscolyn
Community: Rhoscolyn
Traditional County: Anglesey
Tagged with: Church building Medieval architecture
The church was founded in AD630, dedicated to St. Gwenfaen, daughter of Pawl Hen of Manaw (Isle of Man) and sister to Peulan (Llanbeulan, near Rhosneigr), who built her cloister here. A C15 church once stood on the site, and its doorway has been reset in the S wall. The present church was built in 1875 and enlarged by the addition of a chancel in 1879. Built by J G Games of Four Mile Bridge, the architect is thought to have been Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Simple Early English style church with nave of 2 bays, shorter narrower chancel added to E end and with SW porch. Built of local squared rubble masonry with freestone dressings; a modern slate roof with stone copings, W gable ashlar bellcote and crosses at each other gable apex. Nave bays are articulated by paired lancet windows, and there is a similarly detailed window, with relieving arch, in W gable; stepped lancet window to chancel. SW porch has single lancet windows either side and a chamfered, pointed-arched doorway with a stone above bearing a recessed quatrefoil motif. The inner doorway has a reset C15 surround, with casement-moulded jambs and a round head in a square frame with enriched spandrels; quatrefoil to right and star to left. The doorway was widened when reset, with a stressed keystone.
Nave of 4 roof bays with exposed rafters and collared trusses with braces carried down to wall posts on moulded corbels; chancel of 3 roof bays with collared trusses with cusped braces, pierced with trefoils, carried down to wall posts on moulded corbels. Chancel raised by 2 steps; sanctuary with a reredos formed by a mosaic of marble tiles in a floriate design; oak communion rails on shaped and decoratively pierced stanchions.
Fittings: Late C15 3-tiered octagonal font, the lower 2 tiers conical and converging towards each other; set on a chamfered base. Facing panels of the bowl decorated with mix of recessed round and cusped arches, saltires and one with a quatrefoil; lower tiers with plain and trefoil arches and saltires. Bell dated 1611. C20 pulpit with 5 facing panels; paired trefoil recesses with quatrefoils above to upper part, paired quatrefoil recesses to lower part and with carved chamfered angles. Lower part of pulpit recessed with upper part supported on pierced floriate brackets. Pitch pine pews.
Glass: Chancel E window, Christ at the Sea of Gallilee, (showing Rhoscolyn Bay in background). Nave, S wall, W window, St. George and St. Michael, to Cpt. A D H Grayson RFA and 1914-18 war memorial (to a design by Burne-Jones); E window, Christ, to Ianet Maud Pemberton d.1892. Nave, N wall, W window, St. David and St. Gwenfaen, to Francis Mathrall d.1907; E window, Christ and the shepherds, to James Lewis d.1896. Porch, W window, St. Luke; E window, St. John.
Monuments: The church contains memorials dating back to the C17 including; Nave, S wall, marble memorial with achievement-of-arms above to Hugh Hughes of Plas, Inspector General of Excise in Dublin, Tully, Co. Kildare, Esq., d.1754. Nave, N wall, marble memorial to the ancestors of John Hughes of Plas, his father Hugh Hughes, 1699. Chancel, S wall, marble memorial bearing crest of lion rampant, to Thomas Roberts of Bodior, d.1736, his wife Margaret, d.1748 and their son William, d.1763. Chancel, N wall, marble mural monument with flanking pilasters, an achievement-of-arms above, and 2 cherubs' heads below, to John Owen of Bodiar, d.1709, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Rowland Jones of Pentraeth, d.1719. There is also a fine C20 memorial of copper, with Art Nouveau styled design, to John Hopkin, preacher, d.1901.
Included as a good example of a rural parish church, the simple Gothic style appropriate to its scale and site, and with rich interior fittings.
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