Restoration provides high-quality sound with minimum visual impact

The Church of St Peter is the Anglican parish church of Ruthin – an ancient market town which lies within the Vale of Clwyd in Denbighshire.

In 1282, when Edward I had completed his conquest of Wales, his close friend Reginald de Grey, Baron of Wilton created Ruthin as a chartered borough.

During the turbulent years of the fifteenth century, the church continued to serve the community, but 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.

The church has been much altered since, particularly by a Victorian restoration in 1854-59 when its trademark spire – the only spire in the Vale of Clwyd – was also added. Inside, the most immediately striking feature of St Peter’s is that it is double-naved, consisting of two rectangles of equal length, built side by side and divided by a row of pillars.

This arrangement resulted when the originally ‘single rectangle’ church was laterally doubled in size in the late 14th century. Uncommon elsewhere in Britain, the double-naved form was much favoured in the Vale of Clwyd, becoming a distinctive local style. There are now no less than 21 such double-naved churches in the district.

Both naves have magnificent timber roofs, added in the early Tudor period (c. 1500-40). The northern nave roof is particularly elaborate, with decorated beams and over 400 panels carved with an immense variety of devices, flowers, badges and heraldry of baronial families. The later, southern roof is simpler, with plain panels but decorated bosses.

The church building has just been handed back following a £1.6m transformation project. The re-ordering has created a kitchen, toilets, meeting space, a balcony, level access and new underfloor heating. The interior now provides a more flexible space for community use, as well as worship, with the chancel area being lifted and the high altar lowered. Most of the pews have been replaced by more comfortable and movable seating. Next door, the cloisters have been renovated to offer pilgrim accommodation with three en suite rooms, including one with accessible facilities.

As part of this project a new audio system has been designed, installed and commissioned by experienced specialists Richard King Systems.

The brief was to provide suitable audio facilities for the range of services and community events for which the new, more flexible interior space would be utilised. It was to include the capacity for full frequency range live band reproduction, linking to the existing TV system and assisted listening for those with impaired hearing.

To meet the design requirements, and at the same time provide a package that demonstrated a suitably sympathetic approach to the interior of the building, RKS produced a scheme which would provide a versatile and high-quality sound reproduction system with minimum fixed visual impact on the fabric of the interior. This would be achieved by:

• The inclusion of two floor-standing movable loudspeaker units including lockable 1” castors on the lower bass cabinet. When not in use, the loudspeakers could be easily and quickly stored away.
• The top loudspeaker model has class-leading, wide sound coverage – 150° for even sound in the listening area.
• The top loudspeaker cabinets would be white to better blend with the walls.
• The AV control cabinet would be floor standing with castors.
• Audio loop facility coverage in the nave and chancel areas.

With the sound system partially completed in late December 2025 for the two main Christmas services – Carols by Candlelight and Christingle – the church was full with a total congregation of around 600.

While the church dates back many centuries, the audio facilities are truly 21st-century and now part of Richard King Systems’ substantial project portfolio.

For further information visit richardkingsystems.co.uk