Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is an Anglican town church in an elevated position at the centre of Brierley Hill, occupying a large churchyard. The building has a classical core dating to 1765, with major alterations in 1823 and 1837, restoration work in 1873–88, and further significant changes in 1900 and 1994.

The church is constructed of red brick with rusticated quoins and rubbed brick and sandstone dressings, with a slate roof. The plan comprises a west tower and porch, a nave with galleries on three sides, wide shallow north and south transepts, a chancel, and a south-east vestry. The former choir vestry was converted to a kitchen, and the area below the north gallery was screened off in 1994.

The exterior features a plain brick parapet above a dentil cornice, pedimented gables to the transepts and sanctuary, and large segmental-headed windows. The sanctuary has a triple round-headed window with curved corners where it meets the choir. The west tower has four stages, each defined by stone cornices with dentil friezes, angle buttresses with set-offs, a pierced stone parapet, and large square-section pinnacles above a deep stone cornice. The round-headed west doorway has two orders of rubbed brick arches. A round-headed window above also has a rubbed brick arch. A shoulder-headed opening bears the inscription 'built 1765 restored 1900'. An oculus window with a rubbed brick surround sits above, and the belfry windows have stone architraves and swan-necked pediments.

The interior is painted and plastered. The round-headed chancel arch has a panelled soffit carried on Ionic columns with an entablature, matched by a sanctuary arch. Painted roundels set in stone frames flank the chancel arch. The galleries rest on Tuscan columns with gallery arcades of Ionic columns supporting round-headed arches with panelled soffits. Each gallery front is canted forward with a splat balustrade. Cornices run along the ceilings, and the nave ceiling contains two ornamental round ventilators.

The timber reredos has a moulded frame rising centrally and filled with blind round arches, with a timber panelled dado to the sanctuary. Choir stalls have square-headed panelled ends with lattice-decorated frontals. The stone drum pulpit, dated 1900, features a moulded cornice and round-headed arcading on alabaster shafts with a cylindrical stem. The font, also circa 1900, has a chalice-shaped bowl carved with classical motifs and four Ionic alabaster corner shafts supporting a cylindrical stem. Nave benches have shouldered shaped ends. The area under the south gallery is partly screened by a 1930s classical timber screen with round-headed arches, which formerly defined a north-east chapel. Stained glass is mostly early 20th century. A glazed screen from 1995 encloses the area under the north gallery.

St Michael's Church was erected by public subscription around 1765 as a chapel of ease. Following the town's rapid growth, it was enlarged with the addition of transepts in 1823 and again in 1837. Extensive alterations and restoration took place in the 1880s. In 1900 the church was largely rebuilt when the chancel was extended and the tower strengthened and re-cased in new brick, though the classical core survives. The interior underwent further restoration and re-ordering in 1994, including conversion of the north aisle into side rooms and re-siting of wooden panelling to the opposite side of the building.