19715

 

II  

Designated  

22/04/1998  

22/04/1998  

Church of St Mary  

 

Wrexham  

Minera  

Wrexham  

Minera  

326892  

351965  

 

Situated some 300m NW of the centre of Minera, N of the minor road to Gwynfryn.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Anglican parish church, built in 1865-6, to designs by Kennedy & Rogers of Bangor and London, the contractor was John Roberts of Chester, and the new church cost some £2,000 and seated some 350. The equal-armed cross plan suggests an evangelical focus on the pulpit rather than the ritualist focus on the altar. A spire was apparently intended. The previous church on the site was a chapelry in Wrexham parish, the chapel dating from the C17, repaired and enlarged c1730, but by 1864 had become inadequate and dilapidated. £440 of the new church cost was given by the Minera Mining Company and the new parish was created in 1865.  

Anglican parish church, rock-faced crazed rubble stone with ashlar dressings, steep-pitched slate roofs (banded purple and blue) and coped gables, the coping on gabled kneelers. Decorated Gothic style, equal-armed cross plan with SW porch tower linked unusually to side-wall of S transept via a short passage. Raised plinth, clasping angle buttresses, elaborate ogee Dec. tracery with voussoirs in red sandstone and hoodmoulds to some windows. Short nave has segmental-pointed W window with 3 cusped lights. Traceried 2-light window each side. N transept has big 3-light N window and similar 2-light to W. Chancel has small lean-to vestry N, big 4-light E window and S segmental-pointed 3-light, both with hoodmoulds. S transept has 2-light E and W, similar to those on nave and N transept, and big 3-light S window with hoodmould. Short link with 4 tiny lancets from transept W wall to tower. Tower is approx 19m high, 2 stage with cusped-pointed arcading under chamfered and moulded heavy cornice between stages. Bell-stage has clasping buttresses, long 2-light traceried bell-lights with louvres, red sandstone voussoirs but no hoodmoulds. Corbelled cornice above, parapet with blank quatrefoil panels, and 4 crocketted angle finials. Lower stage has pair of narrow loops (lighting ringing floor) to each face, under cornice, and buttresses to sides of W and E faces. W face has single light with hood carried down to mid-height string course. S side has gabled doorway, the gable coped with finial, quatrefoil plaque in apex and pointed doorway with hoodmould and red stone voussoirs. Carving in door head unfinished. Ledged door. E side has buttresses as on W.  

Plastered walls, 4 x 3-bay roofs with arch-braced collar-trusses elaborated with further bracing above collars. Trusses rest on ashlar corbels with leaf carving (8 out of 16 left uncarved). Impressive roof structure over 18' square crossing, the crossed trusses springing from quatrefoil shafts at the angles, the shafts with carved corbels and caps. The bases have Christian symbols: dove, lamb etc, while caps have armorial shields. From the apex hangs a brass corona, apparently designed for oil lights. W end organ loft of 1913, the organ, by Jardine & Co, Manchester, divided each side of the W window. N transept has memorial to Darlington family dd 1866-94, fine N 3-light stained glass window, 1867, by Alexander Gibbs to A Reid, chairman of the mining company, subjects Good Shepherd and Healing the Sick. S transept has S 3-light stained glass by Celtic Studios to Canon E R Jones, d 1951, the Good Shepherd, with arms of the 6 dioceses, and W 2-light by G Maile Studios to Rev H Jones, vicar 1960-76, SS Mary, Tudfil, David and Andrew. Plain octagonal font. Plain pointed door in W wall into passage to porch in tower. Tower base has eroded plaque to R Hughes, 1733. In tower, peal of 10 bells, 1923, by Taylor of Loughborough. In the crossing, pulpit of 1935, apparently made of cast stone, Gothic. Chancel has fine 4-light E window signed by Alexander Gibbs, 1866, to J Burton of Minera Hall, 4 scenes of the Life of Christ under canopies, deep colours. N wall has elaborate recess (for harmonium originally) with triple arch, the centre arch carried on 2 angel corbels, vestry door under right arch. Pitch-pine stalls, open-fronted kneelers with Gothic column shafts, and punched roundels in bench-ends. Vestry to N.  

Included as a relatively elaborate mid-Victorian church to an evangelical plan, i.e. equal-armed cross giving maximum focus on the pulpit.