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The loss was repaired by the purchase of a new chalice, paten, and flagon, which were first used for the Communion Service on Christmas Day, 1850. The new communion plate was purchased for £28, and £1 10s. for the plate chest; the cost was met by the sale of the remnant of the old flagon for £6, donations of £5 from J. J. Turner, Esq., £2 from E. S. R. Trevor, Esq., £3 from the Rev. H. Butler, and £13 10s. from the church rates.

The old church had for many years been falling to decay, the walls were crumbling to pieces, and any thorough and effectual repairs had become impossible. From the vestry minutes of 1855 we find that attention had been called to the state of the church by the Archdeacon (Wm. Clive), and it was "resolved that an opinion be taken on the subject." Nothing, however, appears to have been done, further than voting rates for continual repairs until the year 1866, when a special vestry meeting was summoned by the rector, the Rev. Waldegrave Brewster. This important meeting was held in the schoolroom on Thursday, June 14th, 1866, for the following purposes, viz. :

1. To take into consideration the dilapidated condition of the Parish Church, and the insufficiency of the accommodation at present afforded by it.

2. To authorize the rector and churchwardens to apply for a faculty, or take such other steps as may be necessary to legalise the rebuilding of the said Parish Church.

3. To raise and levy a rate in aid of the expenses of such rebuilding, and for such other expenses and matters as are legally chargeable upon the church rate.

The first resolution put to the meeting was "That this vestry consent to the rebuilding of the church if the rector by himself or others can find the means to do so." This was carried by sixteen votes against seven, the minority apparently wishing to have no alteration whatever made. The second resolution, " that a rate of one shilling in the pound be granted in aid of the

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expenses of such rebuilding met with more opposition, but was carried by fourteen votes against ten. The dissentients thereupon demanded a poll of the ratepayers, which was taken on that and the following day. The result of the poll was that sixty-one votes were given in favour of the rate, and seventy-one against, so that affairs appeared to be again brought to a standstill.

It is not quite clear what the cause of this disagreement could have been, as nothing further is said on the subject in the vestry minutes, but it was probably a question of principle as to whether funds should be provided by rates levied on the parish, or by voluntary subscriptions. The advocates of the latter plan appear to have carried the day, and henceforward both parties worked amicably and successfully together. The rebuilding of the church was decided upon, and the rector and those who had undertaken to assist him in the work, were most active in collecting the necessary funds. Another question which was dis

cussed at the time was whether the church should be rebuilt on the same spot, or on a new site nearer the centre of the village. Although the latter plan would have had some advantages, and the new church would have been about a quarter a mile nearer at hand, old associations and feelings of reverence and affection for the old spot prevailed, and it was determined that the new building should be erected on the ground which had been hallowed as a place of worship and as a place of burial for perhaps eighteen hundred years.

Early in 1867 sufficient funds had been collected to enable the rector to commence operations at once, and the work was carried on with all diligence, and successfully completed in the following year.

A faculty was duly applied for and granted on April 30th, 1867. From the preamble it appeared that "the church had been inspected by an architect, who pronounced the same to be insecure and ruinous, and to be in such a state as not fit to be restored."

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Power was granted by the faculty to take down the church and dispose of or apply the materials, and to erect a new church on the same site. Further "all tombstones, monuments, and monumental inscriptions in the said church so to be taken down to be carefully preserved and set up in the said new church when so erected, as nearly as circumstances will admit. of in the situations from whence they were removed in the said old church."

The choice of an architect for the new church was a very fortunate one. The designs and plans for the new building were entrusted to Mr. George Edmund Street, A.R.A.,' an artist who had already reached the foremost rank in his profession, and who, a few years later, was to become renowned as the architect of the New Law Courts in London. The style decided upon was Decorated Gothic; the material, the beautiful greenish grey stone from the Welshpool Quarries with dressings of freestone from Cefn.

The church is about 88 ft. long by 40 ft. in the widest part, and comprises a nave with a north aisle of four bays, chancel, and organ chamber and vestry. At the west end is a circular turret, with a handsome open arcaded belfry of eight arches surmounted by a

1 George Edmund Street was born at Woodford in Essex on June 20th, 1824. He studied for his profession under the eminent architect, Sir Gilbert Scott, and was elected Asssociate of the Royal Academy in 1866. He attained the full honour of R.A.-the highest distinction open to an artist-in 1871, and he further held the posts of Professor of Architecture, and Treasurer to the Royal Academy. He was also the author of several valuable works on architecture. He died on 18th December, 1881, just before the opening of the Law Courts, and was buried in Westminster Abbey near the last resting place of his eminent confraters, Barry and Scott. A monument was erected to his memory in the central hall of the Courts of Justice, and Lord Chancellor Herschell, in unveiling the figure, said "Mr. Street was a man whose success in life was eminently due to his own merits, genius, and energy. While this building is the crowning work of his life, there is scarcely a county in England-I believe there is no part of the United Kingdom-which does not owe to him some monument or work of beauty."

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