St Mary's Church, Bodewryd

St Mary’s is a small medieval church in the hamlet of Bodewryd on Anglesey, set beside the road with a simple wooden gate leading into its rectangular churchyard. A church stood on this spot in 1254 and the oldest surviving part, the north porch doorway, dates from about 1500. After lightning struck the building in the 19th century, Lord Stanley of Alderley funded its restoration and insisted that the new windows carry Islamic-influenced geometric patterns. The church has always belonged to the Church in Wales and remains part of a combined parish with four other nearby churches. The building is notable for its medieval walls and slate roof with a single bell dated 1747, decorated with a vine scroll. Inside, the nave and chancel form one space just over ten metres long and four metres wide, making it one of the smallest churches on the island. Two fonts stand side by side: a plain gritstone bowl that may be medieval and an oval alabaster bowl added during the 19th-century restoration. Brass tablets on the south chancel wall record gifts from Queen Anne’s Bounty and from Robert Wynn, rector of Llantrisant. Visitors find a quiet country church with medieval fabric and 19th-century character. The east window, late 16th century, has three arched lights under a square hoodmould. Seven generations of the Wynne family lie buried in the churchyard, and their memorials line the interior walls. The roof timbers are exposed overhead, and the single bell still rings from its small bellcote at the west end. The churchyard itself is a peaceful rectangle of grass and gravestones, entered through a simple wooden gate beside the road.