St Gredifael Church
For the History of The Tudor Dynasty in Penmynydd visit Warren Kovach's website - Click here

The altar in the church was erected in memory of Coningsby Williams, who married Mary, the last of the Tudour/Bulkeley lineage. When the church was rebuilt the entrance to the crypt was hidden out of view, It has been the belief of many locals for years that within the tomb lies a very restless soul, because whenever the crypt was opened one of the bodies would be found upright against his burial cell! Today the entrance to the crypt has been hidden from view.

In olden days dogs were taken to the church services. They would often fight and become disruptive, and it was the job of the sexton to control them. For which he had an ingenious tool, metal tongs or "Gefell Gwn". The Reverend Hugh D.Owen can be seen with the tongs outside the church.

The sexton would also be expert at ejecting the dogs from the church. One of the later sextons at St Gredifael was William Williams, ELusendai, Penmynydd, but more commonly known as "Wil Sarjant". It is thought he once was an Army Sergeant, and everyone knew him as Wil Sarjant. The photo shows him wearing a military medal taken sometime in the 1940's. Amongst his many duties at the church, he also kept the churchyard tidy for many years.

Taken from A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis, 1833
This place constitutes a prebend in the cathedral church of Bangor, valued in the king's books at £8.5.7 1/2., and in the patronage of the Bishop. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Anglesey, and diocese of Bangor, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Prebendary. The church, dedicated to St. Credivael, a saint who flourished about the close of the fifth century, and first presided over the college of Ty Gwyn, is a very ancient structure, supposed to have been erected in the year 630: it contains a very superb altar-tomb of white alabaster, without arms or inscription, removed hither on the dissolution of the abbey of Llanvaes, and supposed to have been erected to the memory of some of the Tudor family ; it supports the effigies of two recumbent figures, one a warrior in complete armour, with a helmet of conical form, and the other a female in flowing robes and a square hood: the heads are supported by angels, and the feet rest upon lions.

Elusendai (Almshouses)
The almshouses at Penmynydd were built in 1620 under the will of Lewis Rogers. Above the porch entrance was a sunken panel with the letters and date 'IPHS 1620' and the initials 'LR' over two doorways They are no longer referred to today as Almshouses, but Tai Lewis Rogers (Lewis Rogers'Houses)

Taken from A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis, 1833
Six almshouses, which had been previously founded in this parish, were endowed in 1623, by Lewis Owen, Esq., of Twickenham, in the county of Middlesex, with the tithes of the parish of Eglwys-Rhos, for the better support of the almspeople : these tithes have long been held by the family of Mostyn, who have paid an annual sum for the support of the almshouses, at present amounting to £ 60 per annum. There are also other charitable donations and bequests of land and money for the poor. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £208. 13.

The Parish
The parish, which is situated on the old Holyhead road, comprises a very extensive tract of arable and pasture land, which, with the exception only of a very small portion, is enclosed and cultivated. The surface is undulating, and the soil, though various, is tolerably productive. There is a fair on Easter Monday, principally for hiring servants. This place constitutes a prebend in the cathedral church of Bangor, valued in the king's books at £8.5. 7 1/2., and in the patronage of the Bishop. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Anglesey, and diocese of Bangor, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Prebendary.

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