4337

 

II*  

Designated  

19/10/1971  

31/03/1999  

Church of St Garmon  

 

Gwynedd  

Llanystumdwy  

Pwllheli  

Llanarmon  

242316  

339351  

 

The church is set in an elevated oval churchyard at the centre of the hamlet.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The church, formerly a chapelry of Llangybi, is dedicated to St Garmon, probably the St Germanus of Man who was born in Britanny in c410 AD. It has had rectors since 1395, although much of the surviving fabric is later, probably of the late C15 including the arcade, with some rebuilding in the C16. The E window of the N aisle was inserted in the late C16 and the building was altered in the C18 at which time the chancel was ceiled. The parish was considered a centre of recusancy in the area in the later C16 under the influence of the Owens of Plas-du; later it became a centre for Puritan dissent, welcoming travelling preachers, including Howel Harris, the village being led by William Pritchard of Glasfryn-fawr. They incurred the wrath of the established church by establishing a circulating school and Sunday school.  

The church is built of rubble stonework with large quoins and slate roofs. It consists of two parallel cells, the S with a gabled S porch and the N with a gabled bellcote on the west gable end containing a single bell inscribed RAX 1683. The porch has an open pointed outer arch, with an iron cross on the coped gable, plastered interior with an inner C19 boarded door furnished with elaborate ironwork opening to the interior. Square headed windows with labels, 3-light to the S nave, each light trefoil-cusped and with deep upper lights partly renewed. 2-light C15-C16 windows to the chancel with the original label. Similar 2-light C15 W window, dating from the C19 restoration, the 2-centred head having deep drops and cusped upper lights between vertical mullions. The N wall has an C18-C19 3-light E window. 3-light window to the chancel, similar but later than the S nave window. 2-light window to the nave with ogee tracery. West door.  

A spacious interior, divided by a squat 4-bay arcade of depressed 4-centred hollow-chamfered arches of typical Caernarfonshire type, set on octagonal columns. The S nave is of eight and a half roof bays; low pitched arched braced collar trusses and exposed rafters supported by two tiers of purlins. The walls are plastered and the floor quarry-tiled. The nave is of nine and a half bays of arch-braced collar trusses with cusped raking struts, probably C15. The walls are similarly plastered and the floor tiled. At the centre, a 7-bay rood screen of the C15 or early C16 with a moulded head bressumer and stanchions, and fleurons on the lower rail, the inserted arches including those to the central door now missing. It has on its E side, two late medieval benchends, each topped with a carved and much worn crouching animal and a monstrous bird. The screen bears much faded paintwork. A vestry is divided off at the W end by matchboard partitions. Glass: E window, a Crucifixion of 1917 in memory of Lieut. David Davies. Fittings: the S nave Altar is raised over 2 steps, and has a C17 turned communion rail; the N nave Altar is C20, with an oak communion rail and reredos; font, an octagonal sandstone bowl with a scalloped lip, raised on an octagonal stem; pulpit, part octagon, early C19, with brass oil lamp bracket. By the S door, a poor box, probably of the C17, in the form of a hollowed octagonal post on a short stem, although it is said to have been placed here by command of Henry II in 1166 for donations towards the crusades. Monuments: S Nave, east wall, (a) Carrara marble scroll on slate, to William Cadwaladr Jones of Llwyn-onn, d.1916 on the S.S.Gangarion; on the arcade (b) a small slate plaque reading PLACE LLANARMON T. IM. 1763 2 GRAVES; below the wooden floor, four ledger slabs, (c) Jane Winn, widow of Owen Hughes of Newborough, d.1686; (d) Richard Wynne, infant son and heir to William Wynne of Llanfair, d.1727; (e) Elizabeth Williams, widow and eldest daughter of Francis Lloyd of Llangwynnadl, d.1749, and (f) Ellin Parry, daughter and heiress of Hugh Wynne of Penarth, widow of Love Parry of Cefn Llanfair, mother of Love Parry of Wern-fawr and grandmother of Love Parry of Penarth, d.1750; in the porch (g) two slate charity inscriptions, one of Evan Griffith donating £100, and the other from Mrs Jones of Ddol, and (h) £100 from Hendre, at 5%, on land yield, dated 1847.  

Included at Grade II* as a substantially medieval church retaining early detail including a fine and rare late medieval screen.