St Tyfrydog's Church, Llandyfrydog

St Tyfrydog's Church is in a wooded circular churchyard in the middle of the hamlet of Llandyfrydog in Anglesey, north Wales. It is about {{convert|6|mi|1}} from the county town of Llangefni. Llandyfrydog takes its name from the church: the Welsh word {{lang|cy|llan}} originally meant "enclosure" and then "church", and "-dyfrydog" is a modified form of the saint's name.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/whatsinaname/sites/themes/pages/religion.shtml|title=Religion and creed in place names|publisher=BBC Wales|access-date=24 June 2010}}

The 19th-century Anglesey historian Angharad Llwyd wrote that a church was supposed to have been first built here around 450;{{cite book|last=Llwyd|first=Angharad|author-link=Angharad Llwyd |page=112|title=A History of the Island of Mona|orig-year=1833|year=2007|publisher=Llyfrau Magma|location=Llansadwrn, Anglesey|isbn=1-872773-73-7}} Samuel Lewis, writing in 1849, said that the original church was established by St Tyfyrdog himself. An upright stone about {{convert|4|ft|1}} high, which stands in a field about {{convert|1|mi}} from the village, is known as "the thief of Dyfrydog". It is said by local tradition to be a man turned into stone by St Tyfyrdog for stealing the church's bible; the lump near the top of the stone is said to be the sack on the man's shoulder.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/livesofbritishsa04bariuoft#page/292/mode/2up|pages=292–293|title=The lives of the British Saints: the Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish Saints as have dedications in Britain|author-link=Sabine Baring-Gould|first=Sabine |last=Baring-Gould|year=1907|access-date=20 January 2011|publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion}}

In his 1191 Itinerarium Cambriae ("Journey through Wales"), Gerald of Wales mentioned the church, saying that when the Normans were ransacking Anglesey during a Welsh revolt led by Gruffudd ap Cynan in 1098, Hugh of Montgomery, one of the Norman lords, had kept his dogs in Llandyfydog church. He added that the dogs had gone mad by the morning, and the earl had been killed within a week.{{cite book|series=Studies in Anglesey History|title=Medieval Anglesey|edition=2nd|isbn=978-0-9568769-0-4|last=Carr|first=Antony|publisher=Anglesey Antiquarian Society|year=2011|pages=22–23}}

A church was recorded here in 1254 during the Norwich Taxation, but the oldest part of the present building is the nave dating from about 1400. The chancel was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century or in the first part of the following century. Restoration work took place in 1823, and then again 1862, when the present porch (on the west end of the south wall) and the vestry (to the north) were added, along with other alterations.

The church, which is still used for services as part of the Church in Wales, is one of four in the parish of Amlwch, the others being the churches of St Eleth, Amlwch, St Eilian, Llaneilian, and St Gwenllwyfo, Llanwenllwyfo. As of 2012, the priest in charge is H. V. Jones. The parish is in the deanery of Twrcelyn, the archdeaconry of Bangor and the Diocese of Bangor.{{cite web|url=http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/rb/ben.php?dosommat=detail&which=99|title=Church in Wales: Benefices|access-date=19 April 2012|publisher=Church in Wales|archive-date=17 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317052943/http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/rb/ben.php?dosommat=detail&which=99|url-status=dead}}

People associated with the church include the Welsh botanist Hugh Davies, born in 1739 when his father Lewis was the rector;{{cite DWB|id=s-DAVI-HUG-1739|title=Davies, Hugh (1739–1821), cleric and author of Welsh Botanology|year=1959|first=William |last=Llewelyn Davies|author-link=William Llewelyn Davies|access-date=19 January 2011}} Thomas Ellis Owen, rector from 1794, who wrote anti-Methodist pamphlets;{{cite DWB|id=s-OWEN-ELL-1764|title=Owen, Thomas Ellis (1764–1814), cleric|year=1959|first=Robert Thomas|last=Jenkins|author-link=Robert Thomas Jenkins|fewer-links=yes|access-date=19 January 2011}} and James Henry Cotton (rector in 1814; appointed Dean of Bangor Cathedral in 1838).{{cite DWB|id=s-COTT-HEN-1780|title=Cotton, James Henry (1780–1862), dean of Bangor cathedral and educationist|year=1959|last=Williams James|first=John|fewer-links=yes|access-date=19 January 2011}} The priest and antiquarian Nicholas Owen was born in Llandyfyrdog when his father was the rector (from 1750 to 1785). Owen petitioned, unsuccessfully, on three occasions to be given the living, and he was eventually buried here.{{cite DWB|id=s-OWEN-NIC-1752|title=Owen, Nicholas (1752–1811), cleric and antiquary|year=1959|first=Robert Thomas|last=Jenkins|fewer-links=yes|access-date=19 January 2011}}

File:The simple interior of St Tyfrydog Church, Llandyfrydog - geograph.org.uk - 1226577.jpg]]

St Tyfrydog's is built from rough, small, squared stones, dressed with limestone. The nave measures about 24 feet 9  inches by 23 feet 6 inches (about 7.5 m by 7.2 m); the chancel is about 23 feet 3 inches by 18 feet 9 inches (about 7.1 m by 5.7 m).{{cite book|title=An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Anglesey|orig-year=1937|year=1968|author=Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire|author-link=Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office|page=51|chapter=Llandyfrydog}} The roof is made of slate, with a stone bellcote at the west end housing one bell.{{cite book|title=Anglesey Churches|page=75|isbn=1-84527-089-4|publisher=Carreg Gwalch|last=Jones|first=Geraint I. L.|year=2006}} The roof timbers are visible from inside the church. There are buttresses at the east end of the nave and at the entrance to the porch.

The oldest window is to the east side of the porch, on the south wall, which dates from about 1400; it has two lights (sections of window separated by a mullion) topped by trefoils, set in a rectangular window frame. It is echoed by a 19th-century window on the same wall, set slightly higher to illuminate the pulpit. The north wall has two rectangular windows, one with a pair of lights topped by cinquefoils, the other a single light with a trefoil at the top. One of the windows has been inserted into an opening previously used as a doorway. The east window, which has three lights, dates from the latter part of the 15th century, and is the only window to contain stained glass. Inside, the division between nave and chancel is marked with a pointed arch, dating from about 1400. Seating is provided in the form of painted box pews, dating from the 19th century, and possibly installed at the time of the restoration work in 1823.

A survey by the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire in 1937 noted an 18th-century communion table, an engraved Elizabethan silver cup and a silver paten dated 1721, and a memorial inside the church dated 1791. A 19th-century writer noted a seat near the altar with "R.B. 1630" upon it, said to mark it as belonging to the Bulkeley family (who were prominent and influential landowners, in Anglesey and elsewhere in north Wales, from the 15th to the 19th centuries).{{cite DWB|id=s-BULK-ELE-1400|title= Bulkeley family, Anglesey|year=1959|last=Richards|first=Thomas|fewer-links=yes|access-date=19 January 2011}} The churchyard contains a number of slate tombs and a sundial made from brass, dating from the 18th century, standing in the base of a medieval stone cross.

File:Carreg Leidr - the petrified remains of the Llandyfrydog Bible Thief - geograph.org.uk - 1231141.jpg

The church has national recognition and statutory protection from alteration as it has been designated as a Grade II* listed building – the second-highest of the three grades of listing, designating "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". It was given this status on 12 May 1970, being regarded "as a good Medieval rural church which retains much of its Medieval fabric". Cadw (the Welsh Assembly Government body responsible for the built heritage of Wales and for the inclusion of Welsh buildings on the statutory lists) also notes that the church still had "a rich vernacular character." The churchyard's stone wall and the sundial have both been given listed building status, at the lower level of Grade II (for "buildings of special interest, which warrant every effort being made to preserve them").{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=24827 |desc=Sundial at Church of St Tyfrydog|grade=II |access-date=2 April 2019 |fewer-links=yes}}{{National Historic Assets of Wales|num=24828 |desc=Churchyard wall at Church of St Tyfrydog |grade=II |access-date=2 April 2019 |fewer-links=yes}}

The 19th-century writer Samuel Lewis said that it was "a lofty and venerable structure, in excellent repair", and with "a remarkably large chancel."{{cite book|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47847#s23|title=A Topographical Dictionary of Wales |year=1849|chapter=Llandyvrydog (Llan-Dyfrydog) |access-date= |last=Lewis|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Lewis (publisher)}} Writing in 1859, the priest and antiquarian Harry Longueville Jones said that the church was "one of the better sort" in Anglesey.{{cite journal|first=Harry|last=Longueville Jones|author-link=Harry Longueville Jones|year=1859|journal=Archaeologia Cambrensis|volume=V|series=3rd|publisher=Cambrian Archaeological Association|pages=174–175|title=Mona Mediaeva No. XXIII|url=https://archive.org/stream/archaeologiacam13assogoog#page/n187/mode/2up|access-date=19 January 2011}} At the time he saw the church, there was an old porch and the north door in the nave was still in use. He described the nave as "unusually high", and said that the window positioned to light the pulpit "disfigures the building." He also thought that the "high" chancel walls gave "great effect" to the interior. A 2009 guide to the buildings of the region described it as a "handsomely proportioned church"{{cite book|title=The Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd|pages=151–152|chapter=Anglesey|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14169-6|year=2009|last=Haslam|first=Richard|last2=Orbach|first2=Julian|last3=Voelcker|first3=Adam}} It particularly noted the nave, describing it as "broad, almost a square", with the chancel arch "dying into the responds."

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• [http://www.photosofchurches.com/anglesey-llandyfrydog.htm Photographs of the church]
• [http://www.churchplansonline.org/show_full_image.asp?resource_id=05771.tif Church architectural plan from 1862]

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Category:Grade II* listed churches in Anglesey

Category:Church in Wales church buildings in Anglesey

Category:14th-century church buildings in Wales

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