St Winifred, Gwytherin

St Winifred's (Gwenfrewi) is a Grade II church in an elevated churchyard south-east of Gwytherin, Conwy, historically in Denbighshire. Cadw lists it as the parish church; it is now the Gwenfrewi Project history centre and wedding venue after closing for regular worship.

Overview

Tradition holds that St Winefride became abbess of a convent here after her death around 660. Documentary references to Ecclesia de Gwytherin date from 1254. Cadw records that the dilapidated church was entirely rebuilt in 1867-69 by Lloyd Williams and Underwood at a cost of 750 pounds, as a single cell like its predecessors, incorporating earlier foundations on the north side and possibly older stone in the east gable. It was declared redundant in 1982 and rededicated in 1990 after eight years of disuse.

The Victorian Gothic building has a south porch, north vestry and a small louvred bellcote with slated spirelet. Walls are random grey shale rubble with sandstone dressings on a chamfered ashlar plinth. The churchyard contains four standing stones of the fifth or sixth century, one with a Latin inscription, and a fourteenth-century sepulchral slab to Llaywarch Cappellanus set in the sanctuary step. The medieval octagonal font bowl rests on a nineteenth-century stem. An oak reliquary known as the Arch Gwenfrewi was sketched in 1668 and later broken up.

Further Information

• Cadw listed building 89
• The Gwenfrewi Project
• British Pilgrimage Trust: St Winifred's Church, Gwytherin