St Sadwrn
Henllan, Denbighshire
Henllan is a wonderfully curious place, made even more interesting by the presence of St Sadwrn’s, its unique bell tower, and the lovely surroundings of the Bee Garden and the far reaching views.
Holy Trinity church sits in a delightful, large churchyard with planters in flower for most of the year and benches where you can sit and enjoy the peacefulness. Should the weather turn inclement, the porch offers a pleasant, quiet prayer space, and is usually decorated with fresh flowers.
The church is renowned for the sense of welcome people feel as they walk inside and are surrounded by light filtering through the beautiful stained glass. Grade II* listed, it forms part of a significant parochial architectural group designed by George Gilbert Scott (1811-78), who also designed London’s Foreign Office and St Pancras Station.
The church was built as a lavish memorial to Colonel John Lloyd Salusbury of Galltfaenen (died 1852) and his wife Anna Maria (died 1846) and completed in 1855, at a cost of just under £4,000. An exact contemporary with St Paul’s, Dundee and St Andrew’s, Westminster, it is also a geometric style hall church, although in a diminutive form, with north porch and south chapel. Five tall aisle windows provide the only light to the nave which is flanked by arcades of highly polished Anglesey marble columns with very ornate naturalistic capitals based on ‘natural specimens gathered from the woods and hedges around’ and carved by J Blinstone of Denbigh who was sent to the Architectural Museum in London to study naturalistic French carving.
The elaborate Early English style font, on a limestone plinth, is made from Llaniestyn red-stone with three different additional types of marble. The square pulpit is of similar style and material but with marble steps; the oak choir stalls are in the Arts and Crafts Perpendicular style; and there’s a narrow pierced Perpendicular oak screen to the north chapel. There are four casualties of WWI and two from WWII buried in the churchyard, along with Lance Sgt James Taylor who was part of the 2nd Battalion 24th Regiment who fought during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879. L/Sgt Taylor died in 1919 aged 65, receiving a full military funeral at Holy Trinity church.