St Gwyddelan's Church

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: Included at Grade 1 as a late Medieval parish church with exceptionally good historic interior detail. History: Parish church built around 1500 by Meredith ap Ieuan ap Robert of Dolwyddelan Castle, Penamnen and Gwydir; formerly a possession of the priory of Beddgelert. It replaced an earlier church, of Celtic origin, located on a hill called Bryn y Bedd some 300m to the W. The church was relocated to its present site, according to the builder s great-grandson, Sir John Wynn, for strategic purposes, the original being located in a thicket and consequently vulnerable to attack from Meredith s enemies. The new church was built in a plain, stronger and greater than it was before . Sir John mentions the date 1512 in the stained glass of the E window (now fragmentory), but suggests that the window might have been glazed long after the building of the church . A mid C19 reference states that Meredyth (sic) built the church at his own expense about the year 1500. Twelve years after the church was built a glass window was put in.... A South chapel was added, probably in the 1570s or 80s, by Robert Wynn of Plas Mawr, Conwy, at which time a mural monument to the Wynn family was erected on the N wall; some minor internal changes were also made in the early C18. The church was sparingly restored c1840 by Lord Willoughby de Eresby of Gwydir Castle, who provided the porch and bellcote and converted the original S door into a window. Exterior: Stone church of large, roughly coursed and dressed blocks with roof of thick, rough-graded slates, a quantity of which were allegedly re-used from Meredith s house Penamnen; overlapping copings to kneelered gable parapets. The primary section is a rectangular block consisting of a continuous nave and chancel; later C16 S c

From Cadw under OGL v3.