St Mary Magdalen’s Church, Cerrigydrudion
A place of worship may have existed at this site since 440AD. Some of the present structure is medieval and is mentioned in 13th-century tax records. The building was enlarged in 1503, and underwent a major restoration in 1874. Many of the windows are Victorian, although a medieval window survives in the vestry. The old photo, courtesy of the National Library of Wales, shows the newly rebuilt church c.1875.
According to legend, the church was once possessed by the devil. A wise man was called in to help. Following his advice, the villagers fetched a pair of giant oxen and prepared a chain by dipping it in holy water. A pretty – and brave – young woman walked around the churchyard, successfully tempting the devil out of the building, enabling the villagers to bind him in the chain. The oxen dragged the devil to a lake where he was drowned. The lake was known as Llyn Dau-ychain (Lake of Two Oxen) until it was subsumed by Alwen reservoir.
A large marble memorial in the church was erected by Baron Robert Price, founder of the nearby almshouses, to honour his mother Margaret, widow of Thomas Price of Giler (“Geeler” on the memorial). She died in 1723. She was daughter and heiress of Bwlch y Beudy, another estate in this area. She had three sons and five daughters by Thomas. She lived to “ye happy old Age of 89 and to have great great grandchildren descended from her”.
The Price family’s wealth and influence sprang from the support given by Rhys Fawr of Voel Las (a mansión in Pentrefoelas) to Henry Tudor when the future King Henry VII marched to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. King Henry VIII gave one of Rhys Fawr’s descendants the Voelas estate.
One branch of the family lived at Plas Iolyn. It included Elis Prys, who was famed for his brutality and in 1535 became a Crown administrator for the dissolution of the monasteries. His sons Rhys and Tomos were both poets. Tomos became an explorer and pirate, and recorded his adventures in vernacular Welsh. He used Ynys Enlli (Bardsey) as his base for piracy and was friendly with the Earl of Leicester, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourites.
Another Price memorial in the Church is to William Henry Price (1830-1887), medical officer to Corwen workhouse. As an army Surgeon Major, he served in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.
A list of local benefactors on a wall inside records that one of them left £5, so that interest from it would provide “white Bread to the Poor of this Parish for ever”.
Postcode: LL21 9SW View Location Map
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