St Edern's Church, Bodedern facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Edern's Church, Bodedern |
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The porch and south side of the nave and chancel
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| OS grid reference | SH 333 804 |
| Location | Bodedern, Anglesey |
| Country | Wales, United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church in Wales |
| History | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Founded | 6th century; earliest parts of present building are 14th-century |
| Founder(s) | St Edern |
| Dedication | St Edern |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 5 April 1971 |
| Architect(s) | Henry Kennedy (1871 rebuilding and restoration) |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Perpendicular |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 59 ft 6 in (18.1 m) (nave) |
| Nave width | 16 ft 9 in (5.1 m) |
| Other dimensions | Chancel: 17 by 16 ft (5.2 by 4.9 m) |
| Materials | Stone, slate roof |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Bodedern with Llanfaethlu |
| Deanery | Llifon and Talybolion |
| Archdeaconry | Bangor |
| Diocese | Diocese of Bangor |
| Province | Province of Wales |
St Edern's Church, Bodedern is an old church in the village of Bodedern, located on Anglesey, an island off the coast of north Wales. A saint named St Edern first started a church here in the 6th century. However, the oldest parts of the building you see today were built much later, in the 14th century.
Over the years, the church has been changed and added to. In the 15th century, some new windows were put in. Later, in the 19th century, a new part called a chancel (the area around the altar), a side chapel called a transept, and a porch were added. The main part of the church, called the nave, was also largely rebuilt. Beautiful stained glass was also added to the windows.
Inside the church, there's a special stone from the 6th century with writing on it. You can also see an old baptismal font (a basin for baptisms) and some decorated wooden panels from the 1600s. These panels came from Jesus College, Oxford, which used to have a connection with the church. St Edern's also has some silver items used in church services from the 1800s.
The church is still used for worship today by the Church in Wales. It is considered a very important building and is a Grade II* listed building. This means it's a "particularly important building of more than special interest" because it's a great example of a late medieval church that still looks much like it did after its 19th-century updates, keeping many of its original medieval features.
Contents
Discovering St Edern's Church History
The Village and Its Saint
Bodedern is a village in Anglesey, Wales, about 5 miles (8 km) from the port town of Holyhead. The village gets its name from St Edern, who was also known as "Aeternus." He was a Welsh saint from the 6th century. St Edern is even mentioned in old Welsh stories called the Mabinogion as one of King Arthur's knights!
St Edern started a church in this area in the 6th century. It might have been at a place called Pen Eglwys Edern, which is about half a mile (800 m) from where the church stands now. Eglwys means "church" in Welsh, and pen means "head" or "top." Digs in the early 1970s found an old cemetery from the 5th or 6th century there. The name Bodedern means "dwelling of Edern." The current church is in the middle of Bodedern, on the north side of Church Street.
Building the Church Through Time
The church building we see today is very old, dating back to medieval times, but it has been changed and added to over the centuries. The oldest part is the nave, which is the main area where people sit. This part is mostly from the 14th century.
In 1871, the church had a big makeover called a Victorian restoration. This work was led by Henry Kennedy, an architect for the Diocese of Bangor. Many churches in Anglesey were rebuilt or restored in the 1800s, and Kennedy did a lot of this work. During this restoration, the north wall of the nave was rebuilt, and most of the south wall was also changed.
Some windows from the 15th century were moved to new spots. A chancel (the area near the altar), a porch (at the south-west entrance), and a transept (a side chapel on the north-east side) were all added. This big project cost about £1,000 at the time.
The Church Today
St Edern's Church is still an active place of worship for the Church in Wales. It is one of nine churches in the area that share a priest. As of 2013, there has not been a full-time priest for these churches since September 2009. The church is part of the Diocese of Bangor.
Long ago, St Edern's was connected to St Cybi's Church, Holyhead. In 1648, the right to choose the priest for Holyhead and its connected churches, and to receive income from them, was given to Jesus College, Oxford. The college was involved with the church until 1920. In the 1800s, Jesus College and another fund for clergy helped pay for a new house for the priest. The college also gave £200 towards the church's restoration in 1871.
Church Design and Features
How the Church is Built
St Edern's Church is built in a style called Perpendicular, which was popular in the late medieval period. It uses local stone, with smooth, cut sandstone blocks on the outside. The roof is made of slate tiles and has stone coping (a protective cap on walls). At the west end, there's a small tower called a bellcote with one bell, likely from the 1600s.
You can see one buttress (a support structure) on the south-east side of the nave, which helps hold up the building. There are also crosses on the roof of the porch and at the east end of the nave and chancel roofs.
The main entrance is through an arched doorway in the porch. Inside the porch, there's a 15th-century inner door with a pointed top set in a square frame. The porch roof uses old medieval wood. The nave, the main part of the church, is about 59 feet 6 inches long and 16 feet 9 inches wide (18.1 by 5.1 m).
At the west end of the nave, there's a gallery (a raised seating area) supported by two strong oak beams. One of these beams has the date 1777 carved into it. An old writer from the 1800s said that a rood loft (a screen or platform above the entrance to the chancel) used to rest on one of these beams. The wooden roof timbers inside the church are exposed, showing their age.
The chancel, which is about 17 by 16 feet (5.2 by 4.9 m), is two steps higher than the nave. A pointed arch, added in the Victorian era, separates the nave from the chancel. There's also a Victorian arch connecting the nave to the north transept (the side chapel). Three steps lead from the chancel up to the sanctuary, the very front part of the church. The second step has special decorated tiles with Welsh words that mean, "Wash my passion away with innocence at the altar of the Lord here."
Windows and Stained Glass
The church has five windows on the south side of the nave. One has a pointed top, and the others are square. The middle and easternmost windows are from the 15th century but were moved. The other three were added in the 1800s. On the north side, there's an early 14th-century doorway with a pointed top. To its west is a 19th-century window, and to its east are two 15th-century windows that were moved. These 15th-century windows have two "lights" (sections of glass) separated by stone bars called mullions.
The west wall also has a 15th-century window that was moved. The east window of the chancel is also from the 15th century. It has three lights with a three-leaf pattern called trefoils and decorative stone patterns called tracery. The glass in this window, from the 1800s, shows Jesus going up to heaven.
The south side of the chancel and the north transept have windows from the 1800s. The south chancel window has three lights with tracery and a five-leaf pattern called cinquefoils, along with geometric glass designs.
The stained glass in the east and south chancel windows remembers the wife, son, and daughter of Hugh Wynne Jones, who passed away in the mid-1800s. He was the first priest to be the vicar (a higher position) of the parish from 1868 to 1888. The north transept has a three-light window showing St Edern, made by Franz Mayer & Co.. There are also two-light windows on the east and west sides of the transept, one of which has glass from 1951 by Celtic Studios.
Special Wooden Panels and Other Items
St Edern's has several pieces of wooden panels from the 1600s, which might have come from the Netherlands. There's a wooden screen between the nave and chancel, decorated with carved flowers and fruit. It also has a frieze (a decorative band) with acanthus leaf patterns.
The reredos (the screen behind the altar) has more carved panels, as do the top part of the pulpit (where sermons are given), a reading desk, the communion rail, and a table. The panels on the communion rail are between wooden columns decorated with fruit, flowers, and ribbons. The top of the rail has a long balustrade (a row of small columns) also decorated with acanthus leaves.
These panels came from Jesus College, Oxford. They might have been from the college's chapel, which was updated in 1864, or from a gallery in its library that was no longer used. The balustrade used to be on top of the pews in the chapel. The college's historian said the chancel has a "startling assemblage" of panels, "patched together in jigsaw fashion."
In the transept, you can see a stone from the 6th century with the name "Ergagni" carved into it. This stone was found during digs at the Pen Eglwys Edern site in 1972. The baptismal font is medieval and is a simple eight-sided bowl on an eight-sided column.
There are also memorials in the church. One is a large Greek-style memorial for an army officer who died in 1835. Another is a classical-style tablet from 1839. There's also a slate tablet for an army officer who died in 1914. A survey in 1937 also noted an oak communion table and two simple oak chairs, both from the early 1700s, and various memorials from the 1600s and 1700s inside and outside the church.
In 1906, a survey of church silver in the Bangor area found three silver items at St Edern's: a plain chalice (cup) from 1887–88, a paten (plate) from 1803–04, and a flagon (jug) marked "Bodedern 1809." The survey also mentioned that old church records from 1776 to 1831 talked about another silver chalice from 1574, and pewter flagons and patens, but these were no longer there.
Churchyard
The churchyard is the area around the church. It contains the war grave of a soldier from the Royal Field Artillery who died in World War I.
Why St Edern's Church is Important
St Edern's Church is very important to the country's history and architecture. It is a Grade II* listed building, which is the second-highest level of protection. This means it's a "particularly important building of more than special interest." It received this status on April 5, 1971.
It's considered important because it's a great example of a late medieval church. Even with the rebuilding and restoration work in the late 1800s, it kept its original feel and many of its medieval parts and windows. Cadw, the Welsh government body that protects Wales's historic buildings, also points out the beautiful details inside. These include the chancel screen, reredos, pulpit, and reading desk with their 17th-century carved panels. The late 18th-century gallery at the west end is also noted as a special feature.
People have written about the church before the big rebuilding in 1871. In 1833, a historian named Angharad Llwyd said the church was "a small ancient structure, displaying some good architectural details." She also mentioned that it had "some fine monuments" to local families.
Sir Stephen Glynne, a politician and church historian, visited the church in 1851. He said it was "little superior in size or architecture to the generality of Anglesey churches," but he also noted that it was "in a neat and creditable state" and had "neat and uniform" pews. In 1862, another clergyman and historian, Harry Longueville Jones, wrote that the church was "of good work, and with the details of doors and windows carefully elaborated." He compared the east window to one at St Mary's Church, Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy and noted a small recess in the east wall called an ambry.
