ST. MARY'S PARISH CHURCH, RHUDDLAN

The first church in the Norman Borough of Rhuddlan was built about 1080. Between 1277 and 1282 Rhuddlan hovered on the edge of a much greater importance and It all but became the cathedral city of the Diocese of St.Asaph. It didn't happen but a new Parish Church was built in 1301 - this appears to have consisted of our present south nave. Over the next two centuries portions were added to make by and large, the building we have today. We celebrated our 700th. Anniversary in the year our Lord 2001 and a stained-glass window depicting the Castle, the Church, the Bridge and the River Clwyd was commissioned and installed.

Throughout these centuries the Word of God has been read and preached about, the sacraments have been administered and people have gone forth into the world to bear witness to the living God. Sunday services at St. Mary's take place at 8.00am, 11.00am and 3.00pm (except for the fourth Sunday when they are at 10.30am and 3.00pm). The Sunday School meets in church during the main morning service. The Holy Eucharist is also celebrated each Wednesday at 10.30am. During the summer months stewards are in church to welcome visitors on Thursday afternoons.

Interesting features within the church include a tombstone of William de Freney, Archbishop of Edessa in Syria, which was brought from the Dominican Friary at it's dissolution in 1536 (he lived about 1250-1300 and his uncle Gilbert de Freney had been sent by St. Dominic to found the Dominican Order in England in 1221); and inscribed Biblical quotations (one of only two sets found in Britain - the other being at Sherrington, near Warminster in Wiltshire) dating back to about 1650. These are in Welsh and the text is the Welsh Bible of 1620.

The building was substantially restored in 1812 and by George Gilbert Scott in 1870. It is said to present the appearance of a typical 'Clwydian' or double-naved church of the late 15th Century.

Dr Shipley, who was Dean of St. Asaph Cathedral from 1774 to 1826, married the heiress of Bodrhyddan in Rhuddlan and resided there. One of his daughters (Amelia) married Reginald Heber, the vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire, in St. Mary's Church on 14th April 1809. Heber went on to become the second Bishop of Calcutta in 1823. He wrote fifty-seven hymns. The best known ones probably being 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty' and 'From Greenland's icy mountains.' The latter he wrote during a visit to Wrexham vicarage and it is commemorated in a tablet on the wall of Vicarage Hill in Wrexham.

E-mail:- info@stmarysrhuddlan.org.uk