Rhug
Encyclopedia
Corwen
Corwen is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire in Wales; it was previously part of the county of Meirionnydd). Corwen stands on the banks of the River Dee beneath the Berwyn mountains. The town is situated west of Llangollen and south of Ruthin...
, Denbighshire
Denbighshire
Denbighshire is a county in north-east Wales. It is named after the historic county of Denbighshire, but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales. Pontnewydd Palaeolithic site has remains of Neanderthals from 225,000 years...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, formerly in the old cantref of Edeirnion and later a part of Merionethshire
Merionethshire
Merionethshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, a vice county and a former administrative county.The administrative county of Merioneth, created under the Local Government Act 1888, was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 on April 1, 1974...
, two miles from Corwen
Corwen
Corwen is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire in Wales; it was previously part of the county of Meirionnydd). Corwen stands on the banks of the River Dee beneath the Berwyn mountains. The town is situated west of Llangollen and south of Ruthin...
and ten miles north east of Bala
Bala, Gwynedd
Bala is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, and formerly an urban district of the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake , 17 miles north-east of Dolgellau, with a population of 1,980...
. It includes the hamlet of Bonwen. It is situated near the River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
, under Berwyn range
Berwyn range
The Berwyn range is an isolated and sparsely populated area of moorland located in the north-east of Wales, roughly bounded by Llangollen in the north-east, Corwen in the north-west, Bala in the south-west, and Oswestry in the south-east.The Berwyn range also played its part in causing King Henry...
. About 1150, it was ruled by the Maer Du or "Black Mayor of Rhug" and later became part of the lands of the barons of Edeirnion (see Hughes of Gwerclas
Hughes of Gwerclas
Hughes of Gwerclas were a native Welsh royal family descended from Owain Brogyntyn the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Madog ap Maredudd by a daughter of the "Maer du" or "black mayor" of Rûg in Edernion. His father granted to him and his successors the Cantref of Edeyrnion and the Lordship...
) who ruled from Gwerclas
Gwerclas
Gwerclas usually refers to a former castle and farmstead close to Cymmer in the parish of Llangar in the ancient cantref of Edeyrnion, Wales. It is now just an uninhabited upland area. The modest castle found at the site during the early Middle Ages is now completely ruinous...
Castle.
History
The Lordship of Rhug contained the townships of Aber Alwen in the ecclesiastical parish of Corwen, which is where the manor house of Rhug was situated. It was apparently at Rhug that King Gruffudd ap Cynan was staying when he was betrayed by Meirion Goch of Llŷn, in 1080. Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester and Hugh, Earl of Salop, hearing that the prince was at Rhug came with a group of soldiers under the pretence of visiting him. Meirion Goch persuaded Gruffudd to go with a small guard to meet them, not knowing of the kidnapping plot by the earls, and was seized and carried off to ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
Castle. He was kept there for twelve years in chain and irons. The guards that accompanied Gruffudd were likewise taken prisoners, and after having been barbarously treated, and their right-hand thumbs cut off, were then allowed to go free. It was said that Owain Brogyntyn
Owain Brogyntyn
Owain Brogyntyn ap Madog was the youngest and illegitimate son of king Madog ap Maredudd, the last king of a united kingdom of Powys. He was the son of Madog by the daughter of the Maer du or "black mayor" of Rûg in Edeyrnion. He was the brother of Gruffydd Maelor the ancestor of Owain Glyndŵr...
resided at Rhug after he became Lord of Dinmael
Dinmael
Dinmael was a medieval lordship and cwmwd in north Wales which usually formed a part of the patrimony of the kingdom of Powys. The name, of Old Welsh origin, means "the King's Fort" and probably refers to a now forgotten early Welsh fortress.The name survives in the name of a rural community in...
and Edeirnion, and the lordship of Rhug devolved to the descendants of Bleddyn, Lord of Dinmael, the second son of Owain Brogyntyn. Margaret Wen, lady of Rhug, the sole daughter and heiress of Ieuan ap Howel ap Rhys, Lord of Rhug, married Piers Salusbury of Bachymbyd.
Rhug Chapel
Colonel William Salisbury (1580-1660), affectionately known as Old Blue Stockings, was a colourful character famed for his part in the defence of Denbigh CastleDenbigh Castle
Denbigh Castle was a fortress built following the 13th-century conquest of Wales by Edward I.The castle, which stands on a rocky promontory above the Welsh market town of Denbigh, Denbighshire, was built upon an earlier Welsh stronghold. It was defended by a unique triple-towered gateway.A planned...
in the civil war. Although a warrior in early years he later became a successful writer of Welsh verse and noted for his “high church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
” views. In 1637 he had a private chapel built in collaboration with Bishop William Morgan, who was sympathetic to Salisbury’s views and the first translator of the Bible into Welsh. The resulting private chapel, dedicated to The Holy Trinity, is quite plain and unremarkable to external view. A small construction in stone, a simple nave/chancel with access through a timber arched door at the west end of the church into an extremely small porch, and a door and porch at the north chancel wall for the use of the minister. Above the west door is a single external bell.
The chapel is set in pretty woodland some quarter mile from the busy A5 junction at Ty'n-y-cefn and maintained since 1990 by Cadw (a Welsh word meaning “to keep”, the historic environment service of the Welsh Assembly Government). On buying a joint ticket to see this chapel with the ancient church at Llangar
Llangar
Llangar is a former civil parish in Denbighshire in Wales, south west of Corwen, its post town, and north east of Bala. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Alwen and Dee, and includes the small hamlets of Bryn, Cymer, and Gwynodl. A large portion of the parish is barren. The village,...
, some three miles away, the visitor will assume that the chapel is as plain inside as out but nothing could be further from the truth. On passage through the heavy oak west door the visitor enters a very small porch with barely enough room for two people before a second timber door. On the right a wall holds a bell rope and to the left is a timber staircase leading through a quarter landing to the right and to the gallery. Taking the stairs will afford the visitor a remarkable view of a church so ornate and richly adorned to be completely in contrast to the plain exterior. Immediately and closely visible is the rood roof ornately decorated throughout with intertwining rose motifs. Wall panels are intricately carved and painted, elaborately carved and painted angels adorn the walls the colours bright and clear. (See Gallery).
The nave is separated from the chancel with a low rood screen of sturdy and ornately carved construction. Each window is finished with bright stained glass, of different ages, and with different depictions. The pews are built of oak and the aisle ends of the pews are, unusually, finished with huge oak timber scalloped plinth which are richly carved with beasts and birds. Large chandeliers provided the lighting and are supported on long iron rods from the roof. The nave is simple in contrast. The north wall bears a large painting of a memori morte, a recumbent skeleton designed to remind the congregation of their own mortality. Aart from the altar itself and tiled sanctuary, installed in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, all here is original despite the reformation
Reformation
- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...
.
Outside the chapel, some 30 yards West of the West door is a pillar on a double stone base that appears to be a town or market cross
Market cross
A market cross is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most...
though there is no obvious evidence of a settlement in this area and the chapel was built many centuries after such crosses were normally erected. To the north of the west door is a circular iron railing protecting memorial stones to the Wynn family. Inside the church is a memorial to Robert Vaughan of the estate of Nannau near Llanfachreth
Llanfachreth
Llanfachreth is a settlement some three miles North East of Dolgellau in the former county of Merionethshire ., Mid Wales. The village is on the slopes of the valley of the river Mawddach and at the foot of Moel Orthrwm...
in Wales. He had interests in Rhug and oversaw restoration of the chapel with great sympathy to the original intent. , Vaughan, in 1854, remodelled the exterior bell tower and windows yet left the interior virtually untouched despite the requirements of the recent restoration. The pews, however, were widened and provided with backs though finished in a colour and style similar to that of the original Neo-Jacobean. It is thanks to Robert Vaughan that we are able to glimpse the magnificence of a virtually untouched pre reformation church interior.