4293

 

II*  

Designated  

19/10/1971  

20/07/1999  

Church of St Aelhaearn  

 

Gwynedd  

Llanaelhaearn  

Caernarfon  

Llanaelhaearn  

238703  

344815  

S  

The church stands in the centre of a large irregular churchyard at the centre of the village, bounded by the road on the S and W.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The church is dedicated to St Aelhaearn, servant to St Beuno of Clynnog, who was torn to pieces by wild animals but reassembled by the saint, his brow, being lost, was replaced by a piece of iron. The church is of medieval origin, possibly C12 and certainly C15, with a C16 north transept, a south transept of 1622, and a chancel rebuilt, extending further E, in 1892.  

The church is cruciform in plan, constructed with flush pointed local stone rubble on large boulder foundations and has slate roofs. The walls are low and it has a round-arched C14 W door replacing an earlier S door, now blocked. The W gable carries a tall plain gabled bellcote with a single bell dated 1749 set in a rectangular opening. Small paired round-headed windows with ashlar heads and chamfered mullions. Both transepts are coped, with similar paired lights, and taller windows in the gable ends. The rebuilt chancel is raised over falling ground, and has reset medieval triple deep-set E lancets under a horizontal drip moulding. Below, a door opens to a graveyard maintenance store beneath the floor. The S transept has a built-in stone reading IT 1622. On the N side, a vestry, also added in 1892, is gabled to the W, and has similar windows. There is a reset standing stone opposite the W end, probably the C7-C9 one recorded earlier as having an incised cross.  

The nave is of 2 bays, the roof supported by three medieval heavy arch-braced trusses of almost cruck-like form tapering up from within the walls and carrying 2 tiers of purlins with windbraces. The walls are plastered and have a panelled dado. Wood block floor. The form of the early trusses is repeated in both transepts and chancel, the latter entered by a low springing wide limestone arch. The rebuilt chancel is lined with brick, now whitewashed, and has open ashlared eaves. It is raised four steps above the crossing and ends with the quarry tiled sanctuary. Serving table set in a wall niche on the S side. Fittings: chancel screen, C15 but restored in the C19. It has traceried openings either side of the wider central arch, and a moulded central rail with raised fleurons; font, by the W door, C19 limestone and octagonal with a panelled spire cover; pulpit: late C18 or early C19, panelled, square with angled corners, the panels engraved with a star motif; lectern: 1901, brass eagle; pews: a full and impressive set of early C19 low box pews with spindle galleries around the tops. At the W end a wall cupboard occupies the recess of the blocked S door, and has, at its side, a chunky medieval corbelled stoup. The vestry retains sections of panelling with various inscriptions. Two banks of C19 choir stalls, 5 each side of the chancel, and oil lamp brackets above. Monuments: N transept: (a) an important inscribed early Christian gravestone of c500 AD to Eiliorth Fyddai of the Kingdom of Elmet (Yorks), now mounted horizontally on the wall, inscribed ALIORTVS ELMETIACO(s) / HICIACET. (b) Painted slate tablet to J Evans, rector and benefactor here 1696-1701, translated as Bishop of Bangor 1701-15. (c) Slate tablet to Griffiths Lewis Williams, d.1938, and (d) slate tablet engraved with an inscription to Edward Davies, d.1742. In the S transept: (e) Brass with 16-quartered arms to Catherine Glyn of Elernion, d.1702; (f) Marble framed slate wall tablet to Thomas Lee of Elernion, d.1876 and family; and (g) Marble tablet to Rev W G Jones, rector 1922-1947.  

Included as a parish church which still preserves its medieval character externally, and some early detail internally, particularly its good screen and a fine set of early C19 furnishings.