St Dona's Church, Llanddona

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Coordinates: 53°18′18″N 4°08′27″W / 53.305121°N 4.140838°W / 53.305121; -4.140838
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St Dona's Church, Llanddona
Province of Wales
DioceseDiocese of Bangor
ArchdeaconryBangor
DeaneryTindaethwy and Menai
ParishBeaumaris with Llanddona and Llaniestyn
Clergy
RectorReverend Neil Fairlamb

St Dona's Church, Llanddona (Welsh: [ɬanˈdɔna])) is a small 19th-century parish church in the village of Llanddona, in Anglesey, north Wales. The first church on this site was built in 610. The present building on the site dates from 1873, and was designed by the rector at the time. It reuses earlier material including a decorated 15th-century doorway and a 17th-century bell.

The church is still used for worship by the Church in Wales, and is one of seven churches in a combined parish. It is a Grade II listed building, a national designation given to "buildings of special interest, which warrant every effort being made to preserve them",[1] in particular because it is regarded as "a simple late 19th-century essay in Gothic revival".[2]

History and location

St Dona's Church is on a steep hill near the coast on the eastern side of Anglesey, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the village of

llan originally meant "enclosure" and then "church", and "–ddona" is a modified form of the saint's name.[4] St Dona's is surrounded by a churchyard, entered through a lychgate dated 1906 which bears a memorial to Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley, "Patron and Benefactor of this church".[3]

According to the 19th-century

Norwich Taxation of 1254.[2] Repairs were carried out in the 1840s: one 19th-century writer, Samuel Lewis, recorded that the internal state of St Dona's was "wretched in the extreme" until the rural dean at the time put it "into a state of creditable repair".[6] In 1873, the rector (Peter Jones) had the church entirely rebuilt to his own design.[2]

St Dona's is still in use for worship and belongs to the

archdeaconry of Bangor and the Diocese of Bangor.[8] As of 2012, the rector is the Reverend Neil Fairlamb.[7]

Architecture and fittings

St Dona's is built of

St Curig (left) and St Dona (right); above them are images of a lion, dove, lamb and eagle.[2][9] A stone bearing the date 1566 has been set upside down into the wall above the east window. The other windows are plain and smaller, with one or two lights.[2] The glass in the other windows has been described as "unusual opaque leaded glass".[3]

The fittings are from the late 19th century, although the octagonal font (made of

Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire recorded the presence of an 18th-century communion table, an Elizabethan cover-paten dated 1574, and a silver cup dated 1769–1772.[10]

Churchyard

The churchyard contains two Commonwealth war graves. One is of Hugh Williams, a Royal Welsh Fusiliers soldier of World War I who died in 1918.[11]

The other is the grave of

Fw 200 Condor bomber.[13]

Assessment

St Dona's has national recognition and statutory protection from alteration as it has been designated as a Grade II listed building – the lowest of the three grades of listing, designating "buildings of special interest, which warrant every effort being made to preserve them".[1] It was given this status on 30 January 1968, and has been listed because it is "a simple late 19th-century essay in Gothic revival". Cadw (the Welsh Government body responsible for the built heritage of Wales and the inclusion of Welsh buildings on the statutory lists) also notes that "its simple character" is "appropriate to its scale and site".[2] A 2009 guide to the buildings of the region described St Dona's as "drably rebuilt".[9]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-85760-222-6
    .
  2. ^
    National Historic Assets of Wales
    . Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-84527-089-4
    .
  4. BBC Wales
    . Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  5. ISBN 1-872773-73-7
    .
  6. ^ Lewis, Samuel (1849). "Llanddona (Llan-Ddona)". A Topographical Dictionary of Wales.
  7. ^ a b "Church in Wales: Benefices". Church in Wales. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  8. ^ "Deanery of Tindaethwy and Menai: St Mary, Pentraeth". Church in Wales. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-300-14169-6
    .
  10. Her Majesty's Stationery Office
    . p. 45.
  11. ^ "Casualty Details: Hugh Williams". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Casualty Details: Robert William Hanmer Everett". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  13. ^ Payne, Alan (December 1975). "The Catapult Fighters". Naval Historical Society of Australia. Retrieved 2 June 2022.

External links

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