‘Copy or no copy, this building is perfectly suitable to its situation end should be a lesson to all architects’. Written by a visiting architect, a Mr.Holden, in 1896 the above does little to prepare one for the architectural shock when the church is first seen. Such is the contrast with the uniformity of architectural style to be found in North Wales, and Ardudwy in particular, that the ‘shock of the new’ may be experienced. Not only did the church create a visual impact in Merioneth it precip­itated an Act of Parliament, following a dispute between the founder and the Rector of Llanaber. In 1850, the Reverend W.E.Jelf, student and Censor of Christ’s College, Oxford, retired and came to live at Caerdeon House. Students sought his tuition and came to stay at the house to pursue their classical studies. To meet their and his own spiritual needs he decided to build a chapel. Financial support was obtained from his wife and his brother in law Rev.John Louis Petit. Petit was an amateur architect and had travelled abroad. He had been impressed by the architecture of the Basque churches in South West France. St.Philip’s was planned by him on similar lines. Petit’s chapel, when first built had a distinctly barn-like appearance, It reminded one of Inigo Jones riposte to the Earl of Bedford that St.Paul’s, Covent Garden would be ‘the handsomest barn in England’. The original chapel - the present nave - was a simple rectangular build­ing of rust coloured, rough local stone, with plain rectangular windows, and a rough loggia over the entrance, supported on square pillars. The broad eaves shed the rainwater clear of the building when it was built in 1862. The chancel and south transept, together with the impressive bell-cote, are sensitive later additions. The bell-cote contains four bells, three dated 1862, one dated 1861, cast by G.Mears of London. Upon completion (1862) it was licensed by the Lord Bishop of Bangor to be a private chapel for the use of Rev.W.E.Jelf and friends. Services were to be conducted according to the rites of the Church of England and in the English language only. Caerdeon lay in a purely Welsh district and the Rector of Llanaber refused to provide services in English. In support of his refusal he quoted a law of Elizabeth I, according to which services in predominately Welsh areas had to be conducted in Welsh. Following this dispute the Lord Bishop introduced in the House of Lords a Bill.  ‘The English Services Act, 1863’. Becoming law in 1863, it enabled services to be held in English,..’if ten or more people requested them’. Private patronage ceased and the church became subject to the Governing Body of the Church of Wales, following the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales on March 21st 1920, under the Welsh Church Act of 1914.

The 1830s -1840s period saw over two thousand new churches built in England causing a radical change in attitudes towards style. 1836 saw the publication of A.WJ.Pugin’s ‘Contrasts’ in which he expressed the view that Gothic was the proper architectural embodiment of Christian belief. In 1843, the Cambridge Camden Society was founded. Like Pugin, the Camden— ians saw the Middle Ages as suffused by a romantic glow. In their jc~uxnal ‘The Ecciesiologist’ they praised some buildings and derided others. Many architects fell foul of ‘The Ecciesiologist’, Petit was no exception. Often the critiques were quite acerbic, as illustrated by this one in 1863 about St.Philip’s and the Rev. Petit.

“...something between a large lodge gate and a lady’s rustic dairy. The architect is the Rev.J.L.Petit, and the object of the building (its relig­ious services apart) is to exhibit to the world the notions of picturesque appropriateness entertained by that clever amateur. Mr.Petit as everyone knows, is always drawing and denouncing Gothic, while seeking his practical model in the rustic Italian of hillside chapels on the flanks of the Southern Alps. Such a chapel, with a great dea of  Cymric roughness does he present to us in Merionethshire. There is no doubt a certain amount of quaint picturesqueness about the pile... but after all, the thing is an exotic... its whole form is somehow alien from the idea of a church... Above all, the frame is not big enough for the picture... In a word, the effect of the building is something like that of a Swiss chalet on the Barnet Road ‘, ( a reference to Swiss Cottage ). Eventually Caerdeon House passed into the possession of Samuel Holland, quarry owner, railway promoter and Liberal H.P. for Merioneth. He was the son of Samuel Holland a Liverpool man ,who had extensive quarrying inter­ests in North Wales. Samuel Snr. opened the stone quarry on Yr Eifl and his foreman was named Trevor Jones. The hamlet that. grew up around the quarry became know as Pentre Trevor,  today’s village of Trefor. Inciden­tally, Samuel Snr, was a cousin of Mrs.Gaskell, the novelist. In 1821, young Samuel was sent by his father to Blaenau Ffestiniog to manage a quarry he had opened in Ffestiniog. When he arrived he was eighteen years of age. Spending the rest of his life in Merionethshire and adjacent areas, he successfully took over the completion of the plan for the Ffestiniog railway begun by W.A.Madocks, usefully supported the Portmadoc Harbour scheme, and developed many interests in the slate trade. Born 12th October 1803, he died 27th December 1892, having been Liberal H.P. for Merioneth for the period 1870 — 1885. He is buried adjacent to west gable of the church in a railed off family area.

During Samuel Holland’s time the extended church was consecrated, dedica­ted to St Philip, and by Order of Queen (Victoria) in Council in 1887, the parish of Caerdeon and Bontddu was created.

The liturgical east window has a design in stained glass, depicting the Crucifixion, Our Lady, and St.John framed within a classical arch with columns and capitals. In memory of ‘Samuel Holland, Caerdeon, 27th Dec­ember 1892, by his widow’. (It may be by Kempe). Behind the altar an elegantly furnished reredos with gold and coloured mosaic was erected in November 1900, as a memorial to Elizabeth Mary Partridge 1821-1877.

Undoubtedly, ‘this building is perfectly suitable to its situation’