18669

 

II  

Designated  

05/08/1997  

05/08/1997  

Church of St George  

 

Conwy  

Abergele  

Abergele  

St George  

297389  

375806  

 

The church is in the W angle of the road running S to the main village street, and is set on steeply sloping ground.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The present building was designed in 1887-94 by C H M Mileham (1837-1917) at the expense of Hugh R Hughes of Kinmel, to replace an earlier double-naved church on an adjacent site within the same churchyard. This site is said to have been a place of worship since Celtic times. The earlier church had been provided with a new front in 1732.  

Perpendicular Gothic style. Built of local limestone, pebbledashed above a low plinth, slate roofs. Nave and chancel raised on a platform, having service areas under on the N side. S transept with the family pew, and towards the W end, a S porch, the front of which is curiously raised as a gabled bellcote. Wide moulded arch under a label leads to a spacious porch. Square-headed windows with cinquefoil tracery and labels over, and similar window at the E end.  

Single cell church with plastered walls and panelled vault, with 2 king-post trusses and brattished ties. Reredos and communion rail of oak, chancel screen of 5 bays, also oak, with a part octagonal lectern and pulpit built in. South transept contains the organ. Octagonal limestone font. At the rear of the church, the Hughes family pew, upholstered and extending across the width of the building under a timber canopy. Glass: E window in memory of H R Hughes and Lady Florentia, given by their grandchildren in 1919. Monuments: (a) Polygonal slate, curtained tablet with lozenge of arms over and putto below, to Sarah Atkinson d. 1714; (b) Vertical marble panel with gabled top, to Jane Davies, a minor, d. 1725 and William Davies, father, d.1726; (c) Gabled white marble tablet on a marble field, by W Spence, to Rev John Jones, d. 1854; (d) White marble tablet on slate field, cross over, to Capt Henry Fitzgerald, d.1847 in the service of Emperor of Austria. In the N nave, (e) Alabaster tablet to Lt Col Robert Cooke, d.1933; and (f) tall tapered white marble tablet on slate, to Edward Lewis Hughes, 1st Baron Dinorben, died of the croup at Scarborough, 1814, 1st baron and 2nd Baron Dinorben added. Erected by Gertrude, c1850. At the W end of the church, a good collection of 6 hatchments, H R Hughes, d.1911; Charlotte Margaret, d.1835; Edward Hughes 1738-1815; William Lewis Hughes, 1st Baron, d.1814; William Lewis Hughes, 2nd Baron d.1852, and Florentia Emily Hughes, d.1909. In the porch a plaster Royal Arms of 1618, with lion and unicorn supporters, and over the inner door, a painted Hanoverian arms. Also a baroque shield, painted and gilded on wood, and (g) An inscribed oval plaque to the Rev John Parry, d.1699. In the window reveal, a detached medieval head of a bishop.  

Included as an unusual late C19 design, retaining a fine set of monuments and hatchments internally. Group value with other listed items in the conservation area of St George.