St Mary and Bodfan

St Mary's Church
Church of Saint Mary and Saint Bodfan, Llanaber
View of the church from the beach
St Mary's Church Location in Gwynedd
Coordinates: 52°44′30″N 4°04′35″W / 52.7416°N 4.0763°W / 52.7416; -4.0763
OS grid reference	259930, 318024
Location	Llanaber, Gwynedd
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church in Wales
Churchmanship	High Church
History
Dedication	St Mary and St Bodfan
Architecture
Status	Active
Functional status	Church building
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	4 March 1951
Administration
Parish	Bro Ardudwy
Deanery	Ardudwy
Diocese	Bangor
Clergy
Rector	Rev. Beth Bailey
Curate(s)	Rev. Miriam Beecroft

St Mary's Church or its full name St Mary and St Bodfan Church is a church located in the village of Llanaber in Wales. St Mary and Bodfan is a Grade I listed building, which despite substantial restoration work in 1860, is a well-preserved 13th-century building with lancet windows and arch-braced collar beams (16th-century) to the chancel roof.

Ancient maps refer to the church as St Bodfan's and an association with the saint is preserved in the name of the nearby Bodfan Farm, but the church is more popularly known as St Mary's.

The present church dates from the early thirteenth century. One of its great benefactors was Hywel ap Meredydd ap Cynan, the Lord of Ardudwy, the commot which has given its name to the Rural Deanery of Ardudwy in which the Parish of Llanaber is situated. Hywel was a great grandson of Owain Gwynedd and a near relative of Llewelyn the Great.

The plan of the church consists of a nave, with north and south aisles, and a long narrow chancel. Entering the church by the south porch, rebuilt in the nineteenth century, is the south doorway, a still-standing example of Early English architecture. This doorway, built of yellow sandstone, is deeply recessed and is composed of six shafts on either side. The north door opposite is much narrower and of simple design.

The nave is divided on either side into five arcades. They show the transition from Norman architecture to the Early English Style. The piers are Norman in character with foliated capitals from which spring pointed arches. The four clerestory windows on either side of the nave are examples of Early English lancets, whilst the two long lancets of the west wall are part of the nineteenth-century restoration.

The chancel, which is separated from the nave by an Early English arch, is approached by a flight of steps, necessitated by the sloping nature of the site on which the church is built. The east window is an example of a single Early English lancet with very wide splays and shafts in the inner arch.

The main roof timbers, both in the Nave and Chancel, date from the sixteenth century, whilst the ceiling above the sanctuary is panelled and its bosses and carvings picked out in gilt and colour.