Criccieth - Religion

Religion

Religion has been an important part of Criccieth's life since early days, and around 1300 St Catherine's Parish Church was built on what is thought to be the site of an early religious foundation. As the town developed so did the church, and in 1500 an extra nave was added. The church was restored in 1869 by Henry Kennedy and Gustavus O'Donoghue of Bangor It contains wooden panelling made from old box pews and a communion table dating from the 17th century. On the wall is a list of rectors stretching back to 1301. In the graveyard, the oldest stone commemorates the death in 1688 of Robert Ellis who was Groom of the Privy Chamber in Ordinarie to Catarina de Bragança, the wife of Charles II. Outside the west door is a sundial dating from 1734 with distances to ports in all directions.

In 1749 St Catherine's was one of the buildings visited by Griffith Jones's Circulating School. Out of a population of 600, 543 illiterates were taught to read so that they would be able to understand the Bible.

The nearby Rectory was built in 1831 by John Jones, son of the then rector Owen Jones, who had offered to have the house built if his son could succeed to the position. However, Erasmus Parry, rector from 1863 to 1884, was the first to officially live there.

St Deiniol's Church was completed in 1887 by the Chester architects Douglas & Fordham. Built as a chapel of ease for St Catherine's, it was financed by the Greaves family for the use of English speaking visitors as services at the parish church were held in Welsh. It eventually closed in 1988, its pipe organ being transported to Sydney in Australia.

By the 19th century Wales was a predominantly nonconformist country, and this pattern was mirrored in Criccieth with the construction of a number of dissenting chapels. The Congregationalists had met on Castle Hill but 1886 saw the building of Jerusalem Congregational Chapel on Cambrian Terrace.

Capel Uchaf on Ffordd Caernarfon was built in 1791 by the Scotch Baptists. In 1841 the congregation broke away to become Particular Baptists, followers of Alexander Campbell and the Disciples of Christ. David Lloyd George's uncle often preached here and it was from the steps opposite, leading down into the Afon Cwrt, that the future prime minister was baptised. 1886 saw the Particular Baptists move to their new home at Berea on Tan-y-Grisiau Terrace, and in 1939 they joined the mainstream Baptists.

The Calvinistic Methodists originally met at Tan y Graig on Lôn Fach but moved to Tal Sarnau, a house on the site of the Memorial Hall. From here they moved again, to a site on Stryd Fawr, rapidly outgrowing the small chapel. The neo-classical Capel Mawr was built on the same site in 1813. A second chapel, Capel y Traeth on Penpaled Road, with a notable porticoed facade, was built at a cost of £2,040 in 1895 by Owen Roberts of Porthmadog. Previously known as Capel Seion, it was renamed in 1995 when the congregation merged with that of Capel Mawr, reuniting the two congregations that had separated in 1889.

Salem Methodist Chapel was built on Salem Terrace in 1901. It is now a chapel of rest.

Roman Catholics worship at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Ffordd Caernarfon, whilst Criccieth Family Church meets at the Holiday Club Hall on Lôn Ednyfed.

For over a hundred years community hymn singing has taken place on Sunday evenings on the small green at Abermarchnad, the site of the old market of the original fishing village.

At the 2001 census 82.19 percent of the population claimed to be Christian, whilst 12.40 percent stated that they had no religion.