5390

 

II  

Designated  

12/05/1970  

11/06/2002  

Church of St Michael  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Llanddyfnan  

 

Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd  

245905  

383714  

 

Set back from the E side of a country road c350m S of the small hamlet of Maenaddwyn.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Simple Medieval rural church, repaired and refitted in 1811 and 1844, and extensively rebuilt by Henry Kennedy in 1888. Parts of the walling, and some features such as the N doorway and chancel windows, are C14.  

Predominantly late C19 Gothic revival church comprising 3-bay nave with lower single bay chancel and NW porch. Built of rubble masonry with freestone dressings; nave has stepped angle buttresses. Slate roof with stone copings; cross gable finials and single W bellcote surmounted by a cross finial. The outer porch doorway is a pointed arch above which is a tablet which bears the date 1888. The reset C14 inner doorway is a pointed arch with broach stop chamfered jambs. The nave has single trefoil headed lights; the W wall has a narrow rectangular light to the L of which is an inscribed stone which bears the date and initials: WW WT 1811. The E window is a late C19 ogee headed light with cusped tracery; the moodmould has medieval heads as terminals. The N wall of the chancel has a reset window of a single cinquefoil light and sunk spandrels, the S wall has a single trefoil headed light; both are repaired and appear to be late Medieval in date.  

Both nave and chancel have a late C19 exposed roof with arch braced collared trusses with angled braces, down to wall posts on shaped corbels; those in the chancel each with a single number set in a floriate boss which together read 1888. Set into the S wall of the nave is a C13 grit slab gravestone; an incised cross with a double head. In the N wall of the nave there are another 2 stones, both much weathered gritstone pieces, probably late medieval; one is the lower part of incised stem of a cross on a base of 3 steps, the other has a ring at the head and base and a small cross and 2 rings in the centre. Also set into the N wall is a medieval water stoup; a plain semi-octagonal gritstone bowl. The chancel is a shallow pointed arch which rises from shaped corbels as springing course. The chancel is raised by a single step, the sanctuary a further 2 steps. The sanctuary has a mosaic tiled floor and a moulded rail on shaped stanchions with floriate brackets. The E window depicts St Michael and is flanked by marble memorials: that to R to John Lewis, Rector of Llandegfan d1743, that to L to Elizabeth, widow of John Lewis d1785. At the W end of the nave are another pair of memorial tablets: one to William Thomas d1772, the other to Morys ap Rhisart Morys of Pentrerianell d1763. The medieval font is an octagonal gritstone bowl, recut and probably slightly reshaped.  

Listed as a well detailed late C19 rural church in a simple Gothic style, which includes some medieval features within its fabric and which retains some late C18 memorials.