Detail Report - Bangor Civic Society

Detail Report
Pennant; late C19 Gothic reading desk and chair. Nave has polished stone slab floor continued through crossing,
beyond eastern arch of which are 3 steps to the sanctuary, lower of which is stone but the other 2 and the
sanctuary floor itself of slate slabs; scrolled ironwork altar rails in memory of Owen Maelgwyn Roberts, killed in
World War II, and large late C19 orange-red marble reredos obscuring lower part of east window; this has stained
glass depicting the Last Judgement commemorating Edmund Gordon Douglas-Pennant, given by his widow,
Maria in 1887; stained glass in nave south-eastern window showing SS. Tegai, David and Deiniol commemorates
Revd. R.W. Griffith (d.1890) and there is further C19 stained glass in south window of south transept.
Monuments: below the gallery in the south-west corner of the nave (formerly on south side of chancel) is fine C15
tomb-chest, only 2 sides of which are now visible owing to its corner position, traditionally thought to be that of
either the first or second Sir William Griffith of Penrhyn and his wife: side has 6 panels with cusped and
crocketed ogee canopies divided by crocketed pilasters, each containing an angel dressed in a surplice and
holding a blank shield, end of 3 panels; recumbent effigies on top, man in armour, his head resting on a mutilated
helm, his feet on a crouching lion, woman in long sideless gown over tight-fitting undergarment, her head on a
double cushion supported by an angel. On south wall of chancel is marble memorial to John Williams,
Archbishop of York (d.1650), who had acquired the Penrhyn Estate in 1622: round-arched recess with panelled
soffit and decorated spandrels flanked by bracketed Corinthian columns with entablature and segmental pediment
broken by his coat-of-arms and archbishop's mitre; recess contains gowned and capped figure of Williams,
kneeling at a prayer desk holding a scroll in his left hand; long Latin inscription beneath but his helm and spurs
which once hung nearby are now gone. On north wall is a restrained neo-Romanesque slate wall tablet to George
Hay Dawkins-Pennant (d.1840), builder of Penrhyn Castle, who was buried at Chipping Norton (Oxon.) and a
triangular wall monument to his eldest daughter and heiress, who died at Pisa in 1842. Pride of place must,
however, go to the superb monument by Richard Westmacott, erected in 1821 to Richard Pennant (d.1808) at the
instigation of his widow, Anne, who had died in 1816: of white marble it consists of a pedimented sarcophagus,
flanked by heroic and classically-costumed figures of a quarryman leaning on a staff and a peasant girl with her
distaff, both contemplating a frieze of 4 groups of putti symbolising the state of the district before Pennant's
succession to the Penrhyn Estate and his improvements in slate quarrying, education and agriculture; a long
inscription below further eulogises his achievements. Memorials to the fallen of First and Second World Wars on
nave north and south walls respectively.
Listed
Listed at II* as parish church retaining substantial medieval fabric; good mid-C19 interior and several notable
monuments, including those connected with the Douglas-Pennants. In many ways an estate church, it has been
suggested that the rebuilding of the tower in particular was as much for landscape as any other reason, since it
became a significant feature in the principal distant views of the castle.
Reference
E Beazley & P Howell, The Companion Guide to North Wales (1975), p136;
H Hughes & H L North, The Old Churches of Snowdonia (1984 edn.), pp139-43, 293-4;
National Trust Guide to Penrhyn Castle (1991), p32;
RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, 1 (1956), pp103-5 (330).
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