Population 655 (2011) Community Efenechtyd Sovereign state United Kingdom Dialling code 01824 Principal area Denbighshire | OS grid reference SJ115555 Country Wales Postcode district LL15 Post town Ruthin | |
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Efenechtyd is a hamlet in deep and remote valley in Denbighshire, Wales which contains the Church of St Michael and All Angels.
Contents
Map of Efenechtyd, Ruthin, UK
Governance
An electoral ward of the same name exists. This ward stretches to the south-west of Efenechtyd with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 1,686.
Church of St Michael and All Angels
Set amid a cluster of old houses in a deep and remote valley, St Michael’s is the tiny church of a pretty hamlet. Its circular yew-grown churchyard is a sign of Celtic origins, and the first church here may have been founded by monks from St Saeran’s community at Llanynys (Site 46): the name Efenechtyd could mean ‘place of the monks’. The present building – twenty feet wide, and the second smallest church in the diocese of St Asaph – probably dates from the 13th century, but was extensively restored in 1873.
The ancient door with its spur-shaped iron knocker leads to a simple and very peaceful interior. Its most remarkable treasure is the rare medieval wooden font, a single circular oak block hewn with fourteen facets over a ring of beading: it is probably a 15th or 16th-century local copy of the stone fonts then fashionable. The low battlemented rail nearer the altar is also late medieval, and part of a rood screen (see Derwen Site 6), but the east window is older and perhaps of c. 1300.
Notable later features include a rare fragment of a Welsh wall-painted Ten Commandments (doubtless Elizabethan or Jacobean) and a painted timber monument to Catherine Lloyd (1810), with cherubs and skull and cross-bones. The Georgian monument to Joseph Conway displays his family crest of 'a blackamoor's head': similar heads adorn the gateposts of his (private) house, Plas-yn-Llan, a short step from the churchyard gate. The rounded stone by the font is the ‘Maen Camp’, formerly used at the local ‘campau’ (‘Sports’) on St. Michael’s Day, 29 September. Village Samsons strove to hurl it backwards over their heads.
The custom of throwing the Feat Stone has been revived in recent years and takes place at the Harvest Festival celebrations.
The church is generally open for visitors.Further information and opening times from Diocesan Office, High Street, St Asaph, LL17 0RD; Phone number: 01745 582245.