The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Founded 1490AD

The present church of St. Mary the Virgin stands on the site of an earlier church built, presumably, by the Montalts sometime during their Lordship of Mold in the twelfth or early thirteenth century. Records from the Norwich Taxation of Ecclesiastical Property show that a church of some sort did exist in Mold in 1253 and named Kenric as Rural Dean and probably also Rector of Mold at this time.

The building of the present church was initiated by Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, to commemorate the victory of her son, Henry Tudor, at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Previously, in 1482, Margaret Beaufort had married Thomas Stanley, Lord of Mold, King of Man, and at that time, Steward of the Royal Household. Margaret became his second wife, while he was her third husband.

Lord Stanley played a rather dubious part in Henry's campaign for the English Crown, seemingly preferring to wait for a clear indication of who was most likely to win before declaring his own position. Henry Tudor met Richard III in battle at Bosworth Field, near Leicester, and after some cautious hesitation, when Richard's cause seemed totally lost, Lord Stanley eventually joined his stepson and tradition has it that he picked up the fallen crown and placed it upon Henry's head.

Lord Stanley, as just reward for his pains, added the Earldom of Derby to his already considerable possessions in Wales and the Isle of Man. In thanksgiving for their good fortune, Lord Stanley and Margaret Beaufort endowed colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and undertook the rebuilding of several churches, including St.Mary's, Mold.

Other churches in North Wales accredited to them are St. Peter's in Northop, All Saints at Gresford, St. Giles' in Wrexham and St. Winifred's Chapel in Holywell. The Stanley involvement is highlighted by the number of Stanley crests and arms to be found in the churches.

The rebuilding of St.Mary's was never completed as originally intended. The proposed tall grand clerestory was thought to be too extravagant and was abandoned in favour of the shallow and uninspiring clerestory that can be seen today. A grand chancel arch was built, but due to financial and political restrictions it remained blocked until opened by Scott in the nineteenth century. Rebuilding the church was a slow business and continued well after the Reformation with contributions made by Robert Wharton, Bishop of St.Asaph (1536-1554) and William Hughes, Bishop of St.Asaph (1573-1600).

Evidence for the slow rebuilding of the church is given in the last will and testament of John Davies (dated May 16th, 1558) which after bequeathing:

"my soul to Almightie God and to our blessed Lady, Saynte Mary, and to all the celestial company of Heaven"

continues in a later clause:

"Further I leave and bequeath a couple of oxen that I bought last year to the building of Moulde Church, where I dwell ...".

It was only after Lord Howard's victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 (attributed popularly to Drake), when a wave of euphoria and good will swept across the nation, that the men of Mold once more set to the task of rebuilding the church with renewed enthusiasm. The wave of relief that rolled over the country also stirred the hearts of the wealthy who demonstrated their relief with a flood of benefactions and bequests to deserving causes. Such a deserving cause was Mold Parish Church and the replenished funds allowed work to continue once more. However, even with the input of fresh vigour and rejuvenated finances, the completion of the church still took a further eight years.

F.J. Violet, writing in his "Mold Gleanings" in 1927, refers to the stone in the church carrying the inscription "Fundamentum Ecclesiae Christmas 1597 – W.Eps", which implies that the church was eventually completed, albeit a somewhat abbreviated version of the proposed, more extravagant structure, in 1597, well over a century after rebuilding had first begun!

The Main body of the church was built of Cefn Sandstone in the late 15th Century, but without the apse and porches. There was originally a 5-lighted central east window and a wrought iron rood screen.

The interior of the church had an earth floor, open fireplaces or stoves and was disfigured by many and varied box pews. There was also an unsightly musicians gallery at the west end. Some burials took place within the church whilst benches were allocated for the poorer classes next to the outer walls.

There are a great number of entries in the accounts regarding payments made to builders and carpenters for necessary maintenance work over the years, as one might expect, but it is only in 1742 that the results of a thorough structural survey show just how serious the situation had become. The record of the Vestry meeting dated December 27th 1742 states:
"A survey has been taken and a report made that the roofs of the middle and south aisles are much decayed and in a dangerous condition and that the expense of repairing them would be very considerable and above what the inhabitants of the said parish can afford."
It is interesting to recall that only five years previous to this report the church accounts for 1737 recall:
"whereas a sum of £95, being several benefactions for the use of the poor, also a sum of £50 were advanced and lent to the parishioners to enable them to make a new middle roof to the church"
One can only hope that the roof was in fact repaired promptly after the survey revealed it to be dangerous, but other work was obviously neglected. For instance, the Rural Dean's report in 1749 includes:
"The church is a stately building consisting of three large aisles, but a very poor steeple some part of which is on props."


The Tower
The "very poor steeple" referred to in the Rural Dean's report of 1749 may well have been a Pre-perpendicular one, perhaps a remnant from the earlier twelfth century church. Church records show that this tower along with the fabric of the whole church was giving rise to some anxiety. In 1768, some 20 years after the Rural Dean's report the tower was eventually demolished and the present tower was built during 1768-73 by Joseph Turner, an architect who lived at The Elms in Hawarden and who was also responsible for Bridge Gate on Lower Bridge Street in Chester, the County Gaol in Flint and the old gaol at Ruthin.

Turner created a tower in the Perpendicular style to match the simple elegance of the existing church. He used same buff coloured Cefn sandstone as had originally been used and he even continued the procession of carved animals around the tower so as to further blend the old with the new.
The tower incorporated a peal of 6 bells by Rudhalls of Gloucester which had been cast 40 years previously.

Sir George Gilbert Scott's Restoration - 1856

A major restoration took place in 1856 under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott. a well established master of the Gothic revival. He removed the east wall, thus opening up the chancel arch beyond which he created a chancel consisting of one bay and a three sided apse, having taken his cue from two other Lady Beaufort churches, St.Giles' in Wrexham, and St. Winifred's Chapel, Holywell. Thus he hoped to build a chancel as it might have originally been built back in the fifteenth century.

Scott also organized the restoration of the central aisle roof and in an attempt to reinstate its Gothic integrity he modelled his new roof on the style of the original fifteenth century roof which still remained over the north side. The earlier restoration in the eighteenth century had merely given the church a contemporary roof without an architectural style, though as we are now well aware, only limited funds were available at the time. Reversing such transmutations on architecture style was one of the primary driving forces of the gothic revivalists who were rampant in North Wales during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Although Scott is accredited with the restoration of the roof, the work was actually carried out under his guidance by a local craftsman, Thomas Edwards, in 1857.

However, by 1874 the central roof was again giving cause for concern, as a report in the "Parish Magazinee" for June by the Rev. Rowland Ellis clearly indicated.
"It is with very great regret that we are compelled to announce that the roof of the Parish Church has been discovered to be giving way. Two of the beams are actually split open and others are pronounced faulty. It is expected that Sir Gilbert Scott's report will be received in a few days".
With Sir Gilbert Scott's reputation at stake one can only assume the roof was repaired promptly.

To recap, Turners work consisted of:

• The East wall was opened up and he built a five sided apse with five windows.
• The rood screen was replaced and the external spiral staircase to the roof is now entered from inside the church.
• The box pews were removed, and a wooden floor added, as were the present pews, choir stalls and reading desks.
• The aisles were stone flagged.
• The carved roof over the central aisle was added to match the original 15th Century North Roof. All this carved oak woodwork was carried out by the local craftsman Thomas Edwards between 1857 and 1874.
• Porches were built over the North and South entrances, but the more ornate porch on South entrance with its stone vaulted roof, is probably seventeenth century, but was made Neo-perpendicular when it was restored by Prothero, Phillott and Barnard in 1911
• The font was moved to its present position.

The Stanley or Lady Chapel was restored in 1921 by Sir Thomas G Jackson in memory of the men of Mold who fell in the 1914-18 War.

Our last restoration was in the 1950's when all the wood had to be treated for beetle damage. The slate roof repaired and several pews beyond treatment had to be destroyed. The floor was concreted, the seating area re-designed and the resulting areas stone-flagged.

Most of the old box tombstones and headstones were removed as they had become unsightly with age and difficult ot maintain. The entire area was re-lawned and the present stone wall rebuilt because the old retaining wall was exposed by the demolition of buildings and road widening of the High St.

One box tombstone of particular interest marks the grave of Richard Wilson RA, who has been called the father of British landscape painting. Further information and links can be found on another page.

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