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Latitude: 53.2093 / 53°12'33"N
Longitude: -3.1782 / 3°10'41"W
OS Eastings: 321406
OS Northings: 368678
OS Grid: SJ214686
Mapcode National: GBR 6Y.1VWB
Mapcode Global: WH76Z.4LTH
Plus Code: 9C5R6R5C+PP
Entry Name: Church of St Paul
Listing Date: 31 January 2002
Last Amended: 31 January 2002
Grade: II
Source: Cadw
Source ID: 26196
Building Class: Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Also known as: St Paul's Church, Rhosesmor
ID on this website: 300026196
Location: In a walled churchyard in the centre of the village.
County: Flintshire
Town: Holywell
Community: Halkyn (Helygain)
Community: Halkyn
Locality: Rhosesmor
Built-Up Area: Rhosesmor
Traditional County: Flintshire
Tagged with: Church building
Built 1874-6 by John Hill, architect, its foundation stone laid by Mrs J Strutt Bankes of Soughton Hall in 1874. The font was given in 1907 by the Duke of Westminster.
Lancet style church comprising nave and apsidal chancel under a single roof, of snecked stone with freestone dressings, sill band and plinth band, a plain stone eaves cornice and slate roof. A gabled W bellcote has a single bell. The nave S wall has a gabled porch set back from the W end, which has a coped gable on moulded kneelers. Its side walls have pairs of lancets and angle buttresses with gabled caps. Inside are double boarded doors with diagonal boarding. To the R are 3 pairs of lancets, and a buttress with gabled cap between nave and chancel. The chancel has an inserted pair of lancets in the S wall, below which is a memorial tablet of 1924 with Great War memorial inscription. The apse has 5 lancets, and on the E side is a tablet with Latin cross in relief below the window.
On the N side of the chancel is a vestry with 2 lancets in its N gable end, and a small window above with hood mould continuous with a moulded string course. Its W wall has a doorway with lancet arch, and a door with diagonal boarding and strap hinges. The nave N wall has 4 pairs of lancets. The W wall has angle buttresses and a pair of tall lancets, above and between which is a small round light. Below the W window is a foundation stone with inscription. Below the tablet is a boiler house set below ground level.
The nave is 5 bays with narrow half bays at the E and W ends, and has moulded crown-post trusses on wall posts and corbels, and with painted inscriptions to the tie beams. The high chancel arch has 2 orders of chamfer and no capitals. The apsidal chancel has arched trusses on corbels, and a filleted string course below the windows. A lancet arch in the N wall is now infilled by organ pipes. The N doorway to the vestry, with diagonal-boarded door, is at the E end of the nave.
The ornate Perpendicular style font is marble, with an octagonal bowl, sunk panels with relief carvings of a cross, Chi-ro monogram, IHS monogram and a dove, alternating with symbols of the evangelists. Winged angels are carved on the underside of the bowl. The stem has blind Gothic arches. The font is surrounded by diaper-work black and white tiles, wainscot commemorating Jane Edwards of Penyparc (d 1925), while affixed to the W wall is a medallion with a bust of the first Duke of Westminster and commemorative inscription.
The polygonal pulpit has fielded panels with relief foliage to the upper tier. A chancel screen is of 7 unequal lights and slender buttresses with attached pinnacles. It has panels below open lights with pierced Gothic tracery above the arches, a relief inscription and brattishing. The communion rail has cast iron uprights with scrollwork and a wooden handrail. The chancel is laid with encaustic tiles. A reredos has blind Gothic panelling and brattishing, and was given in memory of Rev Edward Evans, vicar of the parish 1916-23. The pews have simple mouldings and the choir stalls have open arcaded fronts and moulded ends.
The chancel has 3 windows depicting Nativity, Crucifixion and Ascension by Ballantine of c1865, possibly brought from another church. The W window of 1910 depicts the Annunciation, said to be by Jones & Willis.
Listed as a simple high-Victorian village church with good interior detail and associations with prominent local landowners.
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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