ST DAVID'S OR LEICESTER'S CHURCH, DENBIGH
Site Details
- NPRN
- 93307
- Map Reference
- SJ06NE
- Grid Reference
- SJ0526965952
- Unitary (Local) Authority
- Denbighshire
- Old County
- Denbighshire
- Community
- Denbigh
- Type of Site
- CHURCH
- Broad Class
- Religious, Ritual and Funerary
- Period
- Post Medieval
Site Description
NAR SJ06NE6
This is ruined late sixteenth century church that was never completed.
A magnificent new church, the largest of its age, was begun in 1578-9 by the Earl of Leicester in the walled upper town of Denbigh (NPRN 15235). This would have superceded St Hilary's Chapel (NPRN 94724) and there is a tradition that it was intended to to be a new Cathedral Church for the diocsese of St Asaph. In the event work was suspended in 1584 and the church was never completed.
The church was built as a Protestant preaching hall and was modelled on medieval Friary churches. It would have been a great ten bay aisled building, 55m by 23m, with no structural division between the nave and chancel. The exterior was intended to be Gothic in style, the interior classical, with arcades of alternating single and paired Tuscan columns.
Source: Butler in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association 37 (1974), 40-62
'Denbigh Castle, Town Walls & Friary' DoE guide (1976), 36-39
CADW Listed Buildings Database (970)
John Wiles 07.03.08
