Wrexham County Borough 124 - St Marcella and Gift Days/the Yorke memorials and windows

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Gifts Days . As I parked up on Station Road - the station long gone in the Beeching cuts of the 1960's - only the name remains I pondered on Gift Days . I cannot say I knew anything about Gift Days when I was living in England . They seemed though to be popular here in Wales . Gift Days - the day chosen by the local church for the inhabitants of a village to support their local church . It did not matter what religion you were or even if you had none Gift Day was deemed to be the day that you could support the church with a gift of money if you felt so inclined.

Times had changed . Perhaps there was no need for a Gift Day in the past . In the 18th and 19th centuries the churches would be packed to the rafters . The local gentry and all their servants would be in the pews of the local church week in week out . The gentry would have paid for windows, memorials and monuments as well as giving cash to the church through the collection plates . The servants would chip in what they could afford out of their meagre wages . By the 1960's church attendance was dropping although many families still attended once on a Sunday and popped perhaps 2/= onto the collection plate . Children were sent to Sunday School armed with a silver 6d. The Mothers Union contributed and used the halls that sometimes were attached to the church . Teenagers with nothing to do on a Sunday sometimes joined the choirs . Weddings still took place in the churches bringing in a revenue as did the wedding breakfasts, funerals, wakes and baptisms . However since the 1970's congregations have dwindled . Marriages are now allowed in places of non worship and many prefer a castle setting to a church . Funerals no longer are all held in churches as crematorium have taken over . Wakes are held in pubs . So money drifted away . Even the church authorities probably have less cash to dispense to keep the churches open . Fuel costs have risen and many churches have closed their doors for the last time . This is where gift day comes in . To supplement the meagre takings at church services and the lack of revenue feeding down from up above.

Last week I had popped in to Gift Day at St Dunawds, sat and chatted whilst drinking coffee. The church was supplementing its meagre income with donations that were occasionally popped into the donation box and concerts . St Cecilia Singers had visited , Rhos Male Voice Choir was next on the agenda and in between a wine tasting event at £12 a ticket . Wine without cheese - I thought . Why wine tasting ? Apparently it was coming up to the Feast Day of St Dunawd and he liked a drop or two of the hard stuff .

Todays Gift Day was not at St Dunawds but at the nearby Saints Deiniol and Marcella in Marchwiel. A church I always wanted to see inside but the doors were always shut . A trail Y Taith (the journey in Welsh) goes from church to church . All are open but this Georgian building always looked closed . So I had passed it by times many. Today was my opportunity to see inside what is a slightly different church. A church was recorded on the site from 1254. However that building did not survive and the present one was erected and paid for by public subscription in 1774. The main body of the Georgian church was designed by William Worral . The tower erected in 1789 was designed by James Wyatt for Philip Yorke the local squire at Erddig . The transcept was added later in 1829 and the chancel around 1840 - 1850. Sadly the furnishings I read were replaced in the 19th century Probably seen as modern it feels a bit of a travesty as I would expect a church of this age to have box pews . The older church had been an outpost of the monastery at Bangor on Dee.

Standing outside the graveyard looked well cared for with the usual table tombs and eccentric headstones. The church itself was built in an ashlar stone under a slate roof . Round headed windows cut into the walls . Quite different to the Gothic windows in St Dunawd. As I stood out and looked up I could see the tower ballustraded and topped with elegant urns and cockerels at the corners . Outside the doors which were open were ladies . Sitting around and talking . They were selling items to help fund the church . Inside I was welcomed . I purchase raffle tickets for the draw funds again going to the church and then wandered inside what was an open and airy interior .

Light streamed through the windows into a church that seemed small in comparison to its neighbour in Bangor on Dee. The walls were painted light colours which enhanced the airy feeling inside . It was a lovely church . I could not deny that . Described as sophisticated yet unpretentious . Elegant in that style which is typically Georgian. Nothing fussy about St Deiniols and St Marcella . So who was Deiniol ? Deiniol is the welsh form of Daniel and he lived in the 6th century A descendent of one of the royal families of Northern Britain he ended up studying as a young man in Wales before becoming a hermit in Pembrokeshire . He founded two monasteries in North Wales . One in the west - Bangor Mawr - Big Bangor now known as the city of Bangor and and Bangor Is y Coed now the village of Bangor on Dee. Take the local one as you will as it is said it was founded by St Dinawd not Deiniol .

Then there is Marcella - sounds Roman doesn't it ? Well she was Roman . She came from a noble roman family who lived on the Palatine Hill in Rome. After her husband died she reportedly decided to devote her life to charity, prayer and mortification of the flesh. She rejected marriage , she abstained from wine and and the pleasures of the flesh and spent all her time reading and visiting churches . She never spent any time with a man alone and after some years turned her home into a centre for Christian learning and activity . When the Goths rocked up in 410 she was brutalized . The Goths thought she had hidden treasure . The treasure had long gone having been distributed to the poor . She was scourged and beaten however some soldiers arrived on the scene , rescued her and took her to church of St Paul where she died . I guess I was left with the question why are Deiniol and Marcella lumped together on church dedications ?

The church showed clear evidence of the Yorke family from nearby Erddig Hall. The entire south wall was covered with family memorials from the first Yorke to the last Squire Philip Yorke III who before his death handed over the Erddig estate to the National Trust . The memorials ranged from massive marble affairs down to more simple ones . The windows were simply stunning and had to come high up on a list of stained glass . One window was made up of heraldic emblems . Others were kaleidescopes of colour . They were light and colourful but let the September sunshine beam through them. They were mesmerising and some of the most beautiful I have seen.

The high altar was flanked with choir stalls quite simple in design . The walls painted a stunning shade of almost crimson or mauve . It was hard to describe the colour . Raspberry or claret I was not sure . Highly unusual colours for a church but effective marking off the nave from the high altar . I stood in front of the altar with its stunning embroidery worked frontal . I found myself thinking stunning so many times . And this was in a Georgian church . A style I normally disliked . Everywhere I looked I was fascinated. Stunning windows, stunning altar frontal , stunning - the word kept coming in what was a more simple church than usual .

At the side of the altar were the painted boards giving out the christian messages . In one of the choir stalls sat a perspex shape . It was quite disconcerting . It turned out to be a cut out soldier. A Tommy in his uniform . I had seen them before . They had been produced by the British Legion in their workshops to raise money for the Legion . I could see through it . It reflected the light coming in through the windows . I could see my reflection in it . The figure was placed in the choir stall as if it marked where someone who had lost their life had sat . A reminder that they once were there.

I wish I had been on my own in the church . Perhaps I will have to go again and revisit when it is empty. So many corners to investigate . But at least Gift Day gave the chance to actually get inside those closed doors . I wandered for a while amongst the gravestones . A large cross filled the churchyard . The burial place of the McAlpines . Another rich family from the roadbuilding and construction dynasty who lived at nearby Gerwyn Hall. Gift Day over I wondered how much money had been collected that day from the villagers and visitors like me .

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Thanks for sharing your visit...
I felt a bit nostalgic.

[JenGog]

nostalgia
As I get older I get more nostalgic . I find writing Travelblogs are a wonderful way of keeping memories and re-reading them is wonderful for bringing back memories that otherwise might be lost . I wish I had photos from my childhood or from earlier holidays as I would love to write about going to Casablanca as an 14 year old, seeing a Breugel exhibition in Vienna and going in a balloon over Cheshire . All memories never written about and sadly getting to the point where I struggle to remember any details . Love your older memories . A life that we have lost but not forgotten I guess .