Pentrefoelas church
This church was designed in the late 1850s by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the most celebrated architects of Victorian Britain. He incorporated the south transept, of 1774, from the earlier church on this site. That church was built in the 1760s, and its font is inside the Victorian church.
Christian worship in Pentrefoelas in medieval times was catered for by a chapel on land belonging to Aberconwy Abbey. The site, south of the river bridge, is now a playing field, although a yew tree denotes the former chapel yard.
Pentrefoelas church is noted for its stained-glass windows. A challenge for visitors is to spot the strawberry hidden in one of the windows! Some of the windows are by the noted stained-glass specialist Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960).
Local landowner Charles Griffith Wynne funded the new church’s construction. Sir Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) was then head of one of Europe’s largest architectural practices. The pinnacle of his career was the Midland Hotel at London’s St Pancras station. Ecclesiastic buildings were his main area of work, including the sensitive restoration of medieval buildings which had suffered centuries of neglect.