St Tysilio's Church

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: A late mediaeval church with an important family chapel, all well restored in the late C19. History: A small hilltop parish church of the C15 to which a late C16 family chapel has been added. The dedication is to St Tysilio, a C6/7 saint. Before the Dissolution it belonged to the Abbey of Valle Crucis, then to Sir William Pickering and subsequently to the Wynnstay family. In the C19 the living was in the patronage of the Bishop of St Asaph. The list of incumbents commences in 1504; they were perpetual curates until 1870 and vicars thereafter. The style of the church is Perpendicular. It is thought to have been restored in c1570, followed by the addition of the Elizabethan Yale Chapel which overlies the Yale family vault. Of the early fittings the pulpit remains and a dated panel (1615) built into the choirstalls. The bell was recast in 1735. When described by Glynne in 1853 the whole was whitewashed and there was a large south porch. There was then no font, use being made of a stone stoup in the nave wall. Until 1875 there was a west gallery. The church was restored in 1875 for the vicar, the Rev. Richard Owen, by Arthur Baker, architect, of Kensington. The cost was about 800, probably excluding improvements in the Yale Chapel which were at the expense of the squire. Most of the windows date from this restoration. The present south porch and a north-west vestry (with adjacent stoke-hole) were added and the bell turret renewed. The porch included a side door to the Yale Chapel, formed with the loss of an old window. An intended west window to the nave was not formed. In the interior a celure was added over the chancel and one of the two posts of the open side to the Yale Chapel was replaced. The font was the gift of the Yale family. The pews and c

From Cadw under OGL v3.