St Mary's Church, Mold

St Mary’s Church stands in the small town of Mold, Flintshire, on the site of an earlier Norman church. The present building began in about 1490 and grew through the 16th and 18th centuries. It is built mainly of local Cefn sandstone in the Perpendicular style. The west tower was rebuilt in the 1770s to designs by Joseph Turner. A major restoration in the 1850s was led by Sir George Gilbert Scott, who added a new chancel and rearranged the interior. The church is linked with the Stanley family, Earls of Derby, whose heraldic symbols appear on the fabric. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was the first patron of the rebuilt church. The organ installed in 1973 by Rushworth and Dreaper is a rare baroque example with carved doors instead of louvres. The tower contains eight bells, five cast in 1732 and three added in 2005. Inside, the nave has a clerestory and carved benches with poppyheads. The alabaster reredos was designed by John Douglas. The Lady Chapel was restored in 1921 as a war memorial by Sir Thomas G. Jackson. Stained glass by William Wailes and others fills the windows, and the churchyard holds the grave of the painter Richard Wilson.