St Asaph Cathedral: The Episcopal Seat of the Diocese of St Asaph
Site at a Glance
- Rating
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- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page15 sections
History
St Asaph Cathedral is a medieval Christian cathedral in the United Kingdom and the episcopal seat of the Bishop of St Asaph, the church from which the bishop exercises authority over the diocese. It belongs to the Church in Wales, the Anglican church in Wales, and combines Romanesque and English Gothic architecture, including work in the Decorated style. The present building incorporates thirteenth-century fabric but acquired much of its current form through later medieval rebuilding, especially during the fifteenth century.
Legendary beginnings and the medieval see
The Christian origins of Llanelwy, the Welsh name for St Asaph, are associated with a tradition recorded around 1180. According to this account, Saint Kentigern, also known as Mungo, founded a monastery at Llanelwy between 560 and 573 before returning to Scotland in 573. Saint Asaph, a local Welsh saint, supposedly succeeded him as abbot-bishop and remained in office until his death in 596. The tradition shaped the cathedral’s later identity, although its Christian history before the twelfth century has no surviving archaeological or written evidence.
A new episcopal see was established at Llanelwy after 1143. Its first bishop was Theobald, who was consecrated under the name Gilbert. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the twelfth-century bishop and historian, held the office from 1152 to 1155, although warfare probably prevented him from visiting the see. The new cathedral may have stood some distance from the older parish church and monastic settlement, creating a separate institutional centre.
Bishop Hugh, who held the see from 1235 to 1240, directed early building work. Parts of the west gables and buttresses, the south-west corner, and the chancel walls belong to this phase. The cathedral stood on a military route used during conflicts between Welsh princes and English kings, leaving it vulnerable to repeated disruption. Relics of Saint Asaph were transferred from Llanasa to the cathedral before 1281 or in that year.
War, fire, and rebuilding
During the episcopate of Anian II, from 1268 to 1293, Edward I supported a proposal to move the cathedral and diocesan seat to Rhuddlan. A larger church was planned there in 1281, but the proposal was abandoned after the Welsh rising of 1282 and changes in the administrative importance of Conwy and Caernarfon.
In June 1282, English soldiers accidentally burned the cathedral during Edward I’s campaign to conquer Wales. Anian II excommunicated the soldiers, as he had earlier excommunicated Welsh rebels, and subsequently lost Edward’s favour and fled St Asaph. The Archbishop of Canterbury intervened to preserve the diocesan seat at Llanelwy and arrange the cathedral’s rebuilding. Edward I paid the dean and chapter £100 in compensation.
Reconstruction continued from 1284 to 1392. Bishop Llywelyn of Bromfield, who served from 1293 to 1315, reorganized the cathedral’s administration and secured income for its maintenance. Pilgrimage and donations connected with indulgences also supported the rebuilding and upkeep. The principal campaign probably took place between 1310 and 1320 under Master Henry of Ellerton, who was also associated with work at Caernarfon Castle. The crossing, nave arcades, upper parts of the west facade, sections of the nave walls, windows, and probably the transept were rebuilt or altered during this period.
Robert Fagan of Chester received the commission for the bell tower on 25 October 1391, and the work was completed on All Saints’ Day in 1392. A shrine of Saint Asaph and a reliquary containing a famous copy of a Gospel were probably important objects of devotion and helped attract pilgrims.
Glyndŵr’s revolt and later medieval repair
Owain Glyndŵr, the Welsh prince who led the major Welsh revolt against English rule from 1400, and his rebels severely damaged the cathedral in 1402. Bishop John Trefor II, an ally of Glyndŵr, was removed from office and replaced by Robert de Lancaster, formerly abbot of Valle Crucis. Robert reroofed the nave and undertook further repairs, while the transept remained roofless until work was completed under Bishop Richard Redman, who served from 1471 to 1495.
The cathedral’s late medieval development was followed by religious change. Before the mid-sixteenth century it was Roman Catholic; it later became part of the Anglican tradition represented in Wales by the Church in Wales. Its long association with the two saints of the foundation tradition remained visible in its furnishings and imagery.
Damage, restoration, and continuing memory
The cathedral was damaged again during the English Civil War in the seventeenth century, and its original stained glass was destroyed. The choir was rebuilt by Joseph Turner in 1778 and 1779. George Gilbert Scott, a leading nineteenth-century Gothic Revival architect and restorer, carried out an extensive restoration between 1869 and 1875.
Serious subsidence affected the tower in 1930. The damage was attributed to a subterranean stream, and the cathedral architect Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott advised urgent repairs. The work was nearing completion in 1935. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building, a legal status for structures of exceptional architectural and historical importance, recorded under number 1460 in 1962.
William Morgan, Bishop of St Asaph from 1601 to 1604, produced the first complete translation of the Bible into Welsh from Greek and Hebrew. A copy of his 1588 Bible is preserved in the cathedral. The building remains the cathedral church of the Diocese of St Asaph and an active Anglican cathedral.
Remains
St Asaph Cathedral stands on elevated ground within the town of St Asaph in Denbighshire. Its three-aisled, cross-shaped basilica has a nave with narrow side aisles, a two-bay transept on each side, and a long three-bay eastern chancel ending in a straight wall with a large east window. The building combines thirteenth-century fabric with later medieval rebuilding and Gothic Revival alterations. Fine-grained limestone quarried near Cefn was used alongside sandstone from Flint or Talacre, especially for the south and west facades, wall facing, pillars, and sculptural details. The roof is covered with slate.
Medieval exterior and plan
West front and chancel
The oldest surviving fabric includes elements of the west side and chancel, together with portions of the west gables, west and south-west buttresses, and chancel walls associated with thirteenth-century construction. The later medieval work altered the west facade and parts of the nave, while the long chancel retains the eastern focus of the building. A clerestory, the upper level of windows above the main arcades, brings further light into the structure, and medieval stone sculpture survives on the exterior.
North portal and chapter-house entrance
A round-arched portal on the north side is a surviving Norman feature. It once provided access to the chapter house, the room used for cathedral administration and communal meetings, which was demolished around 1778. The portal remains a visible link with the earlier medieval building within the later cathedral fabric.
Central tower
A low central crossing tower rises above the space where the nave, chancel, and transepts meet. It has no spire or roof and carries a later Gothic Revival crenellated parapet. The tower is the cathedral’s single tower and was commissioned from Robert Fagan of Chester in 1391 before its completion in 1392.
Interior spaces and furnishings
Nave, aisles, and ceilings
The interior is largely unplastered. Each narrow, flat-roofed side aisle is separated from the nave by five arcades with plain piers lacking capitals. Their arches and supports are notably simple and austere. The nave and chancel have wooden vaulted ceilings. The ceiling was renewed in 1968 on the occasion of Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales, and the roof was repaired and decorated in the same year.
Windows and choir
The original stained glass was destroyed during the seventeenth-century Civil War. Most surviving windows date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the glass in the west window is twentieth-century work. The eastern window of the north aisle contains images of Saint Kentigern and Saint Asaph, presenting the foundation legends associated with Jocelyn of Furness Abbey. The choir stalls date from the late fifteenth century, while much of the remaining furnishing reflects the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic Revival restoration.
Bishop’s throne and memorials
The bishop’s throne stands on the south side of the chancel and commemorates Bishop Beveridge, who served from 1704 to 1708. Bishop William Morgan is buried beneath it. Other memorials and burials include those associated with Bishops Anian II and William Morgan, as well as a memorial plaque for the Denbighshire-born African explorer Henry Morton Stanley. John Owen, Bishop of St Asaph from 1629 to 1651, is listed among those buried at the cathedral. Isaac Barrow, Bishop from 1669 to 1680, and William Carey, Bishop from 1830 to 1846, were buried in the cathedral churchyard, as were Joshua Hughes and A. G. Edwards, the first Archbishop of Wales.
Translators’ Chapel
The north transept is separated from the rest of the cathedral by an organ dating from the 1830s and serves as the Translators’ Chapel. It contains a displayed 1588 edition of William Morgan’s Welsh Bible, a Bible printed by Richard Parry in 1620, and William Salusbury’s 1567 edition of the New Testament. These books connect the cathedral’s surviving interior with the history of Welsh biblical translation and the work of bishops associated with St Asaph.
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