St Edern's Church, Bodedern

St Edern's is built in the Perpendicular style using local stone, with blocks of cut sandstone as the external face. The roof is made from slate with stone copings and has a bellcote at the west end, with one bell (dating probably from the 17th century).[3][8] There is one external buttress to the south-east of the nave to help support the weight of the building, and there are crosses on the roof of the porch and at the east end of the nave and chancel roofs.[3]

The church's entrance is an arched outer doorway in the porch, with a 15th-century pointed inner door set in a square frame described by one architectural guide as "boldly moulded".[10] The roof of the porch reuses medieval wood.[6] The nave, which has five bays, measures 59 feet 6 inches by 16 feet 9 inches (18.1 by 5.1 m).[3][6] A gallery at the west end is supported by two oak crossbeams, one of which has the date of 1777 inscribed.[3] According to one 19th-century writer, an old rood loft had previously rested on one of the beams supporting the gallery.[2] The late-medieval internal roof timbers are exposed.[3] The chancel, which is 17 by 16 feet (5.2 by 4.9 m), is raised two steps above the nave and is separated from it by a Victorian pointed arch; there is also a Victorian arch between the nave and the north transept.[3][6][10] The second of the three steps leading up from the chancel to the sanctuary at the east end is decorated with encaustic tiles, with the Welsh words Golchaf fy nwylaw mewn diniweidrwydd ath allor o Arglwydd a amglych hynaf ("Wash my passion away with innocence at the altar of the Lord here").[3]

There are five windows on the south side of the nave; the one to the west of the porch is set in a pointed frame, and the others are in square frames. The middle and easternmost of the five date originally from the 15th century but have been repositioned; the other three are 19th-century. On the north side, there is a pointed doorway from the early 14th century, with a 19th-century window to the west and two repositioned 15th-century windows with two lights (sections of window separated by mullions) to the east. The west wall has a repositioned 15th-century window. The chancel's east window is also 15th-century, with three lights headed by trefoils (a three-leaf pattern) and decorated with tracery. It has 19th-century glass depicting the Ascension. The south side of the chancel and the north transept have 19th-century windows; the south chancel window has three lights with tracery headed by cinquefoils (a five-leaf pattern), with geometric patterns of glass.[3]

The east and south chancel stained glass is in memory of the wife, son, and daughter of Hugh Wynne Jones, who died in the mid-19th century.[3] He was the first priest to be vicar of the parish (1868–1888); his predecessors had been curates, a lower position. He is depicted as Simeon, who in Luke's Gospel receives Jesus and his family when they visit the Temple of Jerusalem after the birth of Jesus (an event celebrated as the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple).[8] The north transept has a three-light window to the north depicting St Edern, by Franz Mayer & Co.[3] There are also windows with two lights on the east and west sides of the transept, one of which has a window from 1951 by Celtic Studios.[3][10]

St Edern's has several pieces of 17th-century panelwork, possibly of Dutch origin.[3][6] There is a softwood panel screen between the nave and chancel, decorated with carved flowers and fruit, with a frieze of acanthus leaf. The reredos (the screen behind the altar) has further carved panelling, as does the upper section of the rectangular pulpit, a reading desk, the communion rail and a table. The panels of the communion rail, set between wooden columns decorated with fruit, flowers and ribbons, are topped by a long balustrade, also decorated with acanthus leaf. The panels came from Jesus College, possibly from the college chapel which was renovated in 1864 by the architect G. E. Street, or from a disused gallery in the library; the balustrade previously ran along the tops of the chapel's pews. The college's archivist has described the chancel as containing "a startling assemblage" of panels, "patched together in jigsaw fashion" and "heavily varnished".[15]

A stone dating from the 6th century and inscribed with the name "Ergagni" is kept in the transept.[10] It was discovered during excavations of the Pen Eglwys Edern site in 1972.[8][9] The font, which is medieval in date, is a plain octagonal bowl set on an octagonal column.[3] Memorials include a "chunky Grecian memorial" to an officer of the Bengal Native Infantry who died in 1835, a tablet in neoclassical style from 1839, and a slate tablet to an army officer who died in 1914.[10] A survey by the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire in 1937 also noted an oak communion table and two oak chairs of simple design, both from the early 18th century, and various memorials inside and outside the church from the 17th and 18th centuries.[6]

A survey of church plate within the Bangor diocese in 1906 recorded three silver items: a plain chalice dated 1887–88, a paten dated 1803–04, and a flagon inscribed "Bodedern 1809". The author noted that church records from 1776 to 1831 included mention of another silver chalice, dated 1574, with other references to a flagon and a paten made from pewter, but these were no longer to be found.[17]