4138

 

II  

Designated  

18/10/1984  

03/05/2002  

Former Christchurch (now Yr Hwylfan)  

 

Gwynedd  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

248085  

363128  

W  

In a churchyard S of the junction with Balaclava Road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Built in 1862-4 by Anthony Salvin, architect of London, the drawings for which were produced by Norman Shaw. The contractor was Richard Parry of Menai Bridge and the cost of building was £7610. The spire was added in 1886 by Evan Jones of Groeslon. The church provided English language services in the town. It closed for worship in 1982 and has been converted for leisure use.  

A geometrical-style church comprising a 6-bay aisled nave, S transeptal tower with spire, and lower chancel, with a vestry to the N side. Walls are of grey rubble stone with Bath stone dressings, and the slate roof is behind coped gables on moulded kneelers. The buttressed S aisle has stepped 3-light windows, except for a 2-light window in the L-hand bay and porch in the bay L of centre, with sill band. The windows have notional small blind plate-tracery lights. The aisle has an eaves cornice incorporating a dog-tooth frieze. The gabled porch has a coped verge with gablets to the eaves above angle buttresses. The doorway has a 2-centred arch with continuous filleted roll moulding, replaced double boarded doors and hood mould. The side walls have single small cusped lights. The nave clerestorey has 2 cusped lights per bay, except for a single light to the W end bay, with hood moulds, and has a cornice with dog-tooth decoration similar to the aisle. The S tower is 4 stages, with angle buttresses which are gabled at the base of the upper stage, above which they are narrower. A 3-stage polygonal stair turret is to the SW angle. Openings have hood moulds with head stops. The lower stage has, in the S face, a doorway in a gabled projection offset to the L side, with a replaced boarded door. In the E face is a stepped 3-light window. The second stage has 2-light S and E windows. In the 3rd stage is an offset and 4-bay blind arcades to each face under cusped arches. A pair of tall 2-light belfry openings in each face have slate louvres. A corbel table above the belfry windows has alternate grotesque heads and foliage panels. The octagonal stone broach spire has a single tier of lucarnes in alternate faces that comprise shafts with foliage caps under crocketed hoods. A simple band is above the lucarnes while beneath the apex the spire is crocketed. The apex has an iron Celtic cross. The chancel has angle buttresses, a moulded cornice, and the windows have hood moulds and head stops. In the S and N walls are a pair of cusped lights under glazed trefoils, with linked hood mould. The E window is 5-light with sill band. The vestry on the N side of the chancel has a 3-light E window and boarded-up cusped N windows. The N side of the nave and N aisle are similar to the S side. In the N aisle are stepped 3-light windows, except the W end bay which is 2-light, and the E end bay which has a 2-light window and a doorway to the L under a gabled hood breaking the eaves line, with replaced boarded door. The W front has angle buttresses to the nave and openings with hoods and heads stops. The high-set 4-light W window has a shafted surround and stepped sill band over a W doorway. The doorway has a single order of nook shafts and double boarded doors with decorative strap hinges. The 3-light aisle W windows have a sill band.  

The interior has been converted with the insertion of temporary partitions, but the principal architectural features of the original church are still visible. The nave has 5-bay arcades with round piers and 2-centred arches. The spandrels have blind trefoil roundels. The 6th bay at the W end has a 2-centred doorway in its N wall, to the N aisle. The nave has an arched-brace roof on corbelled shafts, with a single tier of windbraces and a moulded cornice below the clerestorey. The chancel arch has triple attached shafts and moulded arch. The chancel has a 4-bay arched-brace roof with 2 tiers of windbraces, on foliage corbels, with moulded cornice. On the S side is a former corbelled balcony (part cut through to provide access to an inserted upper floor) which has a pointed doorway and cusped side lights. Chancel windows have shafted rere arches. Some original furnishings and fittings have also been retained. The 7-bay wrought iron chancel screen, of 1928 by the Brunswick Ironworks of Caernarfon, has scrollwork to the dado and the heads of the main lights. The ironwork continues on the S side where it forms railings to the pulpit steps. The polygonal stone pulpit has 2 tiers of blind Gothic panelling. Of the E window, by Hartley of 1871, only the tracery lights are retained. The N and S windows portray the 4 Evangelists, of 1928-9.  

Listed as a well-designed Gothic Revival church by an architect of national standing, sensitively adapted to a new use.