Collegiate and Parochial Church of St Peter, Ruthin
| Churchyard Gates | |
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| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Location | Churchyard, Ruthin, Denbighshire |
| Town or city | Ruthin |
| Country | Wales |
| Website | |
| Cadw | |
| References | |
| Cadw 906 | |
The Collegiate and Parochial Church of St Peter is the Anglican parish church of Ruthin, an ancient market town which lies within the Vale of Clwyd in Denbighshire, north east Wales. It is a greater church of the diocese of St Asaph and a Grade I listed building.
The embryo of Christianity developed in the Vale of Clwyd before the 10th century, when numerous Celtic saints established religious cells throughout the vale. One, named Meugan, founded a cell within the parish of Llanrhydd, which served the surrounding population, including that of Ruthin. It flowered to become the mother church of the area. It is evident that St. Meugan's grew in prominence, as the church is recorded in the Norwich Taxatio of 1254 and suffered damage during the Edwardian wars for which compensation was paid by the Crown to the church authorities. The present building is located some 1.5 miles south-east of Ruthin.
In 1282, when Edward I completed his conquest of Wales, it was the first phase in the reduction of the dominance of St. Meugan's as the mother church. For his services to the crown, Edward granted the Cantref of Dyffryn Clwyd to his close friend Reginald de Grey, baron of Wilton. De Grey proceeded to complete the construction of Ruthin Castle, which had been commenced in 1277 by royal masons, and in 1282 created Ruthin a chartered borough.
With the death of Reginald de Grey in 1308, the lordship of Ruthin passed to his son John, an important person in the history of St. Peter’s.
In 1310 he established a place or worship – Capella St. Petri – for the inhabitants of the new borough. He established collegiate church, which is a church staffed by a community (Latin collegium) of priests, in this case seven.
During the turbulent years of the fifteenth century, the collegiate church continued to serve the community, but it suffered damage during the Owain Glyndŵr uprising, when the town of Ruthin was raided on 16 September 1400 and again in 1402, when the 3rd Lord de Grey was captured and ransomed by Glyndŵr.
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