1596

 

I  

Designated  

07/06/1963  

 

Parish Church of St Chad  

 

Wrexham  

Holt  

 

Holt  

341208  

354104  

E  

Set within a rectangular churchyard, at the end of a lane, and retaining good C19 monuments.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Church was remodelled by Sir William Stanley, who held the lordship of Bromfield and Holt Castle, in the late fifteenth century. The rebuilding retained the C14 nave arches and a piscina of similar date was reset in a chapel. A truncated arch and partial pier at the SE end of the chancel arcade suggests that the C15 remodelling was not completed according to plan. Parapet added c1732. Restored in 1871-3 by Ewan Christian and John Douglas of Chester at a cost of £4,000. Christian built the present sanctuary and Douglas was responsible for most of the furnishings and a complete or very substantial rebuilding of the camberbeam roof.  

Perpendicular aisled church. Red sandstone blocks laid in courses, rectangular plan with W tower said to be 1679, N and S doors, unbroken aisled nave and chancel. N and S aisle windows perpendicular in style, later C18 parapet. S door, four centred arch with enriched drip mould surround. Carved stone panel above S door contains a much weathered scene of the Annunciation. Tablet in parapet above with inscription `JOHN ROWE, JOFHUA POWELL, CHURCH WARDENS 1732'. E end elevation perpendicular panel tracery windows to chancel and aisles. Beneath chancel window an ogee headed marble memorial slab is inserted to commemorate Jasper Peck of Cornish Hall d 1688. Apex of gable parapet contains tablet with inscription `THE REVEREND JOHN ADAMS MINISTER 1732', iron cross on apex. Chancel and north aisle buttresses finished with decorative finials. The later W tower contains a peal of 6 bells by Rudhall of Gloucester which were installed in 1714 and rehung in an iron bell frame in 1896. The clock on the W tower was installed in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.  

The nave has 5-bay arcades with tall acutely pointed arches on octagonal piers. There is no structural division between nave and chancel which continues for a further two bays with wide 4-centred arches on octagonal piers with exaggerated concave faces. Steps up to the sanctuary which has a floor with plain and encaustic tiles and is separated from N and S chapels by low walls. There is a continuous camberbeam roof with panels which are decorated with foliated bosses in the chancel. Aisles have similar roofs. In the S wall of the S chapel is a reset piscina with an ogee head flanked by abraded crocketted pinnacles. At the W end is a tall narrow tower arch. The exposed stone walls have a number of mason's marks and graffito, some of C18 date. At the SW end is a font with octagonal bowl which is boldly carved with faces and stems with heraldic motifs including the fleur-de-lis of Henry VII and the stag head caboched of the Stanleys; the heraldry is said to suggest a date of 1483. C19 furnishings are generally of oak; the chancel screen has open ogee arcading, an octagonal pulpit on stone base is richly carved; the pews have poppyheads. Organ by Norman & Beard 1910, rebuilt 1976. Monuments include a copper plate on the N wall of the N chapel by Silvanus Crue of Wrexham to Thomas Crue d 1666 whose name is commemorated in an acrostic. Well-executed design which includes skulls, hourglasses, sundials and a recumbent skeleton. Brass on N aisle wall with angel blowing the last trump, Mary Dutton, d 1767. Above the N door is a Neoclassical monument with festooned urn and winged putto; Christiana Smith d 1811. W side of tower arch a brass with angel, skull and winged hourglass; John Lloyd d 1784. Above S door is a cartouche with drapery and winged putto, partially legible. Plain glass with the exception of a S aisle windows with SS David, Asaph, Chad and Swithun in memory of G T Kenyon dated 1912 and signed PGG.  

Listed at grade I as an outstanding example of a medieval parish church.  

E Hubbard, Clwyd, 1994, pp182-3;,
E Hubbard, The Work of John Douglas, 1991, p139;,
A N Palmer, The Town of Holt In the County of Denbigh: Its Castle, Church, Franchise, Demesne, Fields etc together with the Parish of Isycoed, 1910, p306-8;,
D R Thomas, History of the Diocese of St Asaph, Vol I p151 and Vol III p259;,
Lloyd Williams & Underwood, The Village Churches, etc, of Denbighshire, 1872.,