St Giles, Wrexham
Visited on Tuesday April 9th, 2024.
We were in Wrexham for the day, and after passing the closed Cathedral, we had approached St Giles from the south, an approach which has the church towering over you on top of a hillside.
Once up the steps to the southeast corner, we walk around the north of the church and into the grounds through the eighteenth-century wrought iron gates.
The entrance to the church is through the north porch, and it is lovely and warm inside. It is busy inside as some community group is just breaking up from whatever activity they were doing. I did like the sign they had inside the door of the porch.
From the north porch we head clockwise around the interior of the church, going up the north aisle towards the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Chapel and their memorials in the northeast corner.
Then it is back into the nave in front of the chancel and the splendid view back towards the west doors.
To the left is the stone and marble pulpit,
And in front of us is the chancel and St David’s chapel, with the reredos and wonderful stained-glass windows around.
To the right is the huge organ which hides the piscina behind it.
The south aisle houses the community space, and like the north aisle has numerous memorials and glorious stained-glass windows along it.
The vestry in the southeast corner now houses the shop, and the ante nave contains the large font.
At the west is the tower, which is bordered by more memorials to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
Looking back down the nave to the chancel, you get an unobstructed view of the roof which is adorned with musical angels and a small red face at the east end said to represent the devil.
Just below that is the ‘Doom Painting,’ depicting the day of judgement.
And underneath that, the chancel gates, which date from a similar time to the wrought iron gates outside the church, and are attributed to the same person — Robert Davies.
History
The first known mention of a church on the site dates from 1220, but it is thought that there was a church on the site early in the eleventh century. The current church is said to be the third to have been built on the site.
Local legend says the church was to be built on what is now Brynyffynnon, but each day’s work was destroyed overnight. Whilst watched the day’s work collapsed with a voice crying ‘Bryn-y-grog,’ which was taken as a sign that the church should be built on the hill of that name a couple of hundred yards away.
The church is dedicated to St Giles. But it was originally dedicated to the Celtic saint Silyn. It is said this may be a translation error as both Silyn and Giles can be translated to Aegidius in Latin. But it indicates the origins of the church date back to when Welsh churches were dedicated to Celtic saints who may not have been recognised by the Catholic Church.
The original tower was blown down in 1330, and after which the whole church was rebuilt in the Decorated style. That forms the basis of the naves and aisles of the fifteenth century building seen today which was started after the church was gutted by fire in the middle of the century.
The tower was added in the early sixteenth century, and the chancel and high altar were added at the same time, and is thought to be due to the influence of the Stanley and Beaufort families who had connections in the area and were responsible for bestowing grants upon religious and educational institutions. It is believed that it was intended for St Giles to be a collegiate church, but as this was happening, so was the reformation and the plans came to naught. The bishop at the time also tried to move the centre of the diocese to the church from St Asaph. The brass eagle lectern dates from 1524.
There were said to be bells hung from the fifteenth century. In 1675 a bell from St Aspah cathedral was given to Wrexham in an exchange for three smaller bells. A new peal of ten bells was cast in 1726–27 by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester. They were refurbished, tuned, and turned in 2016.
The font also dates from this time, but it was lost in the seventeenth century and was not recovered until 1843, and the decorative panels were restored at the time.
Elihu Yale, the benefactor of Yale University was a local and in the early eighteenth century made many gifts to the church, including a gallery, which is now at the west end of the church.
New galleries were added in the early nineteenth century, and a major restoration of the church took place in the 1860s including the current pulpit being built.
The churchyard was vastly reduced to the south of the church in the 1890s when the Wrexham-Ellesmere railway built a viaduct through it.
The current organ was added in 1894 and was built by Foster & Andrews of Hull and was fully restores in 1984. The original organ was destroyed in the civil war by the Parliamentary army, and it was 1779 before another organ was added.
Another major restoration took place at the turn of the twentieth century, and the reredos, altar rails, and marble chancel floor were added in 1914 by architect Sir T.G. Jackson.
The stained-glass dates from between 1841 and 1920, except for a modern piece from 1989. There were a multitude of makers involved; David Evans of Shrewsbury, Henry Hughes of Ward & Hughes London, Powell & Sons of Whitefriars London, Alexander Gibbs, CE Kempe, WE Tower, Clayton & Bell, Edward Burne-Jones of Morris & Co, James Eadie Reid of Gateshead, and JA Nuttgens.
The Royal Welch Fusiliers chapel was set up in the tower originally, but it was moved to the north aisle in 1989 and has a screen presented to the church in 1977.
The church was re-ordered in 2012 to allow for a modern congregation.
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