87572

 

II  

Designated  

21/10/2008  

21/10/2008  

Church of The Holy Trinity  

 

Wrexham  

Esclusham  

 

Rhostyllen  

331528  

348582  

S  

On the SE edge of Rhostyllen, in a large church yard on the SE side of Wrexham Road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The church was built in 1876-7, designed by J.E.Lash of Wrexham. The foundation stone was laid by Simon and Victoria Yorke of Erddig. In 1916, interior fittings by Cecil Hare were added, perhaps as a benefaction of the Hamer family (the benefactors of the nearby Saint Peters, Brynteg, which also includes contemporary work by Hare), or possibly of the Yorkes of Erddig. Cecil Hare was the partner of G.F.Bodley and the successor to the practice after Bodley's death in 1907.  

Nave with transept chapels and chancel, giving cruciform plan. Unadorned early gothic character. Rock-faced snecked stone, concrete tiled roof retaining ridge cresting. Tall blank bell-cote on east end of nave. Nave of 4 bays articulated by buttresses, each with 2-light plate-traceried window with plain hoodmould on plain capitals. West end has similar window and simple rose window at apex. Flat-roofed porch, probably a later addition as the steep hood mould of the inner doorway is visible behind it. It supports a small bell-frame with bell. Paired doorways in its north wall. Side chapels have 3-light plate-traceried windows, and there is a similar window of 4-lights to chancel. Lean-to vestry extension against north wall of chancel with polygonal east bay; broad gabled extension to south of chancel.  

King-post roof to nave with turned tie-beams and king-posts, braced collar supporting king strut. West gallery (partitioned below), with slender turned rail. Chancel roof in 4 narrow bays, with arch-braced collars sprung from wall-posts on corbels. Original arches to transept chapels infilled. From this period are the chancel screen and the south transept screen, all other internal joinery - including benches, dado panelling and choir stalls - as well as the reredos. The exceptionally fine chancel screen has delicate tracery work to panels, canopy canopy oversailing on slender ribbed vaulting, with foliate scroll and fretwork. Transept screen is similar, though without the canopy. Dado panelling throughout nave and chancel, with simple reed-moulded decoration and stylised quatrefoils in the rail. Choir stalls echo this but with richer detail: the rear panels have traceried heads and fretted cresting, there are traceried bench-ends, and a band of quatrefoil piercing to the front bench. Altar rails also incorporate the stylised quatrefoil motif. Sandstone reredos in late gothic style: traceried framework, with saints in little niches between the main panels which depict the Nativity with adoration of the Magi and Shepherds. East window has figures of Hannah, Ruth, Mary and Priscilla. South transept is war memorial chapel, with fine gilded lettering on dado panel-work, and stained glass window depicting Saint Michael, by Geoffrey Webb. North transept (now partitioned off from church) has exceptionally fine stained glass north window, dated 1906 and in a rich renaissance idiom; by Herbert Bryans.  

Listed for the quality of the interior, which contains exceptional work by Cecil Hare.