St Peter's Church, Ruthin

St Peter’s Church stands on the edge of Ruthin, an old market town in the Vale of Clwyd, Denbighshire. It is the Anglican parish church, built some 1.5 miles south-east of the town centre. The present building replaced an earlier church linked to St Meugan, a Celtic saint whose religious cell served the area before the 10th century. In 1254 the church appears in the Norwich Taxatio, and it suffered damage during the Edwardian wars. The double-naved design, with two equal rectangles divided by pillars, became common in the Vale of Clwyd. The church is Grade I listed and houses seven priests known as the Bonshommes, an Augustinian order with only three houses in England and Wales. During the Owain Glyndŵr uprising the church was raided in 1400 and 1402, and the third Lord de Grey was captured and ransomed. Dean Gabriel Goodman bought the church in 1589–90 and refounded the wardenship, building almshouses for twelve people. The Victorian restoration of 1854–59 added the spire, the only one in the vale. Inside, the northern nave roof is richly decorated with over 400 carved panels showing heraldic devices. The southern roof has simpler panels with bosses and a painted section near the altar. Two monumental brasses on the north wall commemorate Edward Goodman, a cloth merchant and mayor, and his family. Behind the church lies a small cathedral close of historical buildings, including the almshouses governed by Goodman’s statutes. The iron gates of 1720, made by the Davies brothers, stand at the churchyard entrance.