All Saints' Church, Gresford

All Saints' Church stand proudly in the former coal mining village of Gresford near the Welsh market town of Wrexham. The bells of the Parish Church of All Saints is one of the Seven Wonders of Wales. Not only are the peal of bells of note, listed it is said for the purity of their tone, but the Church itself is remarkable for its size, beauty, interior monuments, and its yew-filled churchyard. The bells are traditionally one of the Seven Wonders of Wales and commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme:

:Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple, :Snowdon's mountain without its people, :Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells, :Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.

Though the present edifice was built in the late 13th Century by the Welsh patron Trahaearn ap Ithel ap Eunydd (and his five brothers), additions and improvements in the 14th and 15th centuries obscure much of the original building. The very size of All Saints meant that it was probably a place of pilgrimage for centuries, housing a relic or stature of a saint that has since disappeared. Some of the stained glass windows in the church came from the dissolved abbey at Basingwerk on the banks of the Dee below Holywell. The church was also richly endowed by Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, whose intervention at the Battle of Bosworth helped Welsh-born Henry Tudor overcome Richard III in his successful quest for the throne of England.

The earliest record of the peal of Gresford bells dates back only to 1714. An apparatus was installed in the belfry in 1877 so that all eight bells could be chimed by one person. The bells are rung regularly for church services, and the old custom of ringing on November 5th is still continued, though it is unclear whether this is to commemorate the successful landing of William of Orange in 1688, or the Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament in 1605. During World War II, the custom of tolling the passing bell was discontinued, as the bells were to be rung only as an invasion warning.

Inside the impressive church, one of the most remarkable finds was discovered in 1907 by workmen, the Gresford Stone. This is a Roman altar that was hidden for centuries, being used as a stone block in the rebuilding of the medieval church. The altar has four carved sides and a decorative depression at the top, used for the placement of offerings to the goddess Nemesis depicted on one side. The altar was probably part of a Romano-Celtic shrine dating back to 100 to 350 A.D.

The Church is surrounded by a grove of Yews, some of which are equal in size and age those of Overton listed in the Seven Wonders of Wales. Twenty-five of these were planted in 1726, but one growing near the south gate is an older. . It was already an ancient tree at the time of Richard II's proclamation that ordered the general planting of yews to support the army.

External links

* [http://www.allsaintsgresford.org.uk/ www.allsaintsgresford.org.uk]