A COMMUNITY Open Day will be held at St Hilary’s Church in Llanrhos.

This will be on Saturday, September 18 from 10am until 4pm.

The event will feature games for children, historical records, churchyard tours, flower displays, history talks and musical entertainment.

Visitors will also be able to see the bees.

According to historypoints.org, it is thought that the original Llanrhos church was built and dedicated to St Mary by Prince Maelgwn of Gwynedd in the sixth century.

In 546AD he was elected by the Welsh chiefs as their head and became, at least nominally, King of all the Britons.

The website states: “He clashed with St Padarn, who had founded a monastery at Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth, and sought to convert heathen rulers to Christianity. Maelgwn resided in Deganwy Castle but eventually took refuge in Llanrhos church from a dreadful plague, Fad Felen or yellow pestilence. One story says that he looked through the window and saw the “Yellow Lady” approaching. He fell ill and died. It’s said that he was buried under the south door.

“The church, now known as St Hilary’s was rebuilt by the Cistercian monks of Aberconwy abbey in about 1282.

“The Church in Wales’ records still identify it as the Church of St Mary amd St Eleri. Some say Hilary is the Anglicised Eleri, others say the name Hilary, fourth-century Bishop of Poitiers in France, came with the Cistercians.”

The church was extensively restored between 1820 and 1865 with donations from the Mostyn family, the landowners who lived at nearby Gloddaeth Hall. They still use the family burial plot in the churchyard.

Inside the church, on the West wall, are memorials to the Wynne family of Plas Mawr, Conwy, into which the Mostyns married.

For more information about the day, telephone 01492 473252 or visit Friends of St Hilary’s on Facebook.