Efenechtyd

Efenechtyd
240px St Michael and All Angels
Efenechtyd  Efenechtyd shown within Denbighshire
Population	655 (2011)
OS grid reference	SJ115555
Community	Efenechtyd
Principal area	Denbighshire
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RUTHIN
Postcode district	LL15
Dialling code	01824
Police	North Wales
Fire	North Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
EU Parliament	Wales
UK Parliament	Clwyd West
Welsh Assembly	Clwyd West
List of places UK Wales Denbighshire

Efenechtyd is a hamlet in deep and remote valley in Denbighshire, Wales which contains the Church of St Michael and All Angels.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches stretches to the south-west of Efenechtyd with at 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.

• Church of St Michael and All Angels
• Sant Mihangel a'r Holl Angylion, Efenechtyd, Sir Ddinbych 02.JPG

  Font, carved from one piece of wood

• Sant Mihangel a'r Holl Angylion, Efenechtyd, Sir Ddinbych 06.JPG
• Sant Mihangel a'r Holl Angylion, Efenechtyd, Sir Ddinbych 14.JPG

  Carved roode and pulpit

• Sant Mihangel a'r Holl Angylion, Efenechtyd, Sir Ddinbych 24.JPG

  Roof beams

• Sant Mihangel a'r Holl Angylion, Efenechtyd, Sir Ddinbych 30.JPG

  Back of church

References

Living Paths

As of 28 April 2011, this article is derived in whole or in part from medieval-wales.com/index.php. The copyright holder has licensed the content in a manner that permits reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. The original text was at "Efenechtyd".