The Church of Ss Eurgain and Peter is situated in the village of Northop (otherwise known as Llaneurgain) Flintshire in North East Wales. St Eurgain and St Peter's church is a member of the diocese of St Asaph, the Church in Wales.
Many may unknowingly have seen the church while travelling through North Wales as the distinctive pinnacles of St Peter's tower are visible alongside the busy A55 expressway. As with many Welsh villages the church is the centre-piece of the village, and indeed would have been at the heart of village life for centuries.

History and architecture:

There has been evidence of a church in Northop since the 6th century. It is said that Eurgain, a niece of Saint Asaph, passed through Northop

and founded the church here on a Celtic mound, upon which it still stands. The Welsh placename for Northop, Llaneurgain, translates as "The holy enclosure of Eurgain". Records indicate that there was a stone church erected here during the 12th century.

The church was enlarged in the late 15th Century under the patronage of Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry V11 and benefactor to several Flintshire churches including St Winefride's Holywell, St Mary's Mold, St Giles' Wrexham). A new nave was added to the south side and a four-bay arcade was inserted into the south wall of the earlier church. The original sanctuary at the east end of what became the north aisle was converted to a Lady Chapel, and the building of the fine Perpendicular tower, initiated in the late 15th to 16th Century, was completed to its 98-foot height in 1571 ..as evidenced by the date found carved on a gargoyle.

The main body of the double-naved church ,except for the internal arcade, was rebuilt in 1839.

Inside the church there is a Perpendicular camberbeam roof, some medieval effigies and some 18th Century memorials:

There are four effigies of the 13th and 14th Century date set in tomb recesses ; a marble memorial with an illegible inscription of early 18th or perhaps late 17th Century; marble memorials of 1750, 1768, 1798 and several of 19th Century date, and a brass of 1741/2 and two 19th Century brasses.

Two of the corbels within St Peter's have also been claimed as 14th Century: on the north side the most westerly corbel is of a man's head and the fourth from the west end appears to be an eagle or mythological beast with a man's face.

The walls of the tower have four decorated quatrefoil bands and seven string courses.  The seventh string course has gargoyles on it, a quatrefoil frieze below it and above it a final inset stage, basically a parapet. The gargoyles project on all sides and one at the south-west angle has a date of 1571 on it. The battlemented parapet has eight crocketed pinnacles.

St Peter's Church Organ:

The organ was built in 1931 by Messrs. Rushworth & Dreaper, Liverpool and the opening recital was given by Dr Middleton, then organist at Chester Cathedral. By utilising the beautiful reverberant acoustics of the church, the power of the organ is perfectly matched to the building into which it has been installed. To mark the 75th anniversary of its construction well attended organ recitals were given in 2006. The choristers of St Asaph Cathedral also sang evensong in the church that year, accompanied by John Hosking on the organ.

Click here to here a recording of the organ

Church Services:

Family Services are very informal and last approximately ½ hour. They are boisterous and noisy affairs where anything goes and often does! The church trys to make it fun and to involve the young people in every aspect of the service.

For those who prefer a traditional style of worship the 8am Holy Communion, Mattins and Evensong services follow the Church in Wales Book of Common Prayer.