Many times as we travelled into North Wales we would pass this beautiful Marble church near St Asaph, so called due to its striking white dominance on the landscape when travelling the A55 North Wales Expressway. We always said, one day we must stop and have a look. Well that one day eventually arrived a couple of weeks ago on a bright sunny morning. I wished I had more than just my canon G9 - were were going hiking so were travelling light.
The marble church real name is St Margaret's Bodelwyddan - erected by Lady Willoughby de Broke in memory of her husband. She laid the foundation stone on 24 July 1856 and the new church designed by architect John Gibson was consecrated by the Bishop of St Asaph on 23 August 1860 after construction at a cost of £60,000. Formerly known as "the Pearl of the Vale", St Margaret's is now known as the Marble Church, not just for iys external appearance but also due to thirteen different kinds of marble in the interior. Now would love to do a wedding here!
To the west of the church is Kinmel Park, a former military camp used by Canadian troops during the First World War. The churchyard contains the graves of numerous victims of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 in the camp. On 4-5th March 1919 a riot occurred in the camp when the ship allocated to return the troops to Canada was diverted to carry food supplies to Russia, and five Canadian soldiers were killed in the disturbances and subsequently buried in St Margaret's churchyard - the graves and rose garden pose a poignant memorial for them all.
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