Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels

Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels

This is a small single-cell parish church built of local limestone, mostly in coursed, roughly squared blocks, with a slate roof and oversailing eaves with expressed rafter ends. Stone-coped gable parapets stand at the west and east ends; the eastern parapet carries a stone gable cross.

The south and north sides each feature a 2-light 19th-century Decorated-style window to the nave, with a similar chancel window on the south side. These windows have cusped ogee heads with plain ferementa. A masonry break is visible on both north and south sides between the nave and chancel, with the chancel slightly narrower than the nave. The east end contains a simple pointed-arched, 2-light tracery window of red sandstone with two cusped lights and a surmounting quatrefoil oculus; the sill and mullion are 19th-century replacements in lighter sandstone. The west gable holds a 2-stage gabled sandstone bellcote with moulded kneelers and a surmounting gable cross, featuring a chamfered bell opening with a cusped inner arch. Below this, in the gable, is a cusped lancet of 19th-century date.

The west entrance is via a fine gabled porch, the upper section of which is timber-framed with an open front; the side walls are of rubble and the roof is slate. The front has an open collar truss with oversailing bargeboards above, topped with 19th-century replaced brattishing with a central pendant or finial. Inside, the porch is one bay with inner and outer collar trusses, cusped wind bracing and chamfered purlins. Narrow stone benches stand on both sides with a slate-flagged floor. The original oak door is of chamfered post-and-panel construction with rails to top and bottom; the upper section was restored in the 19th century and retains an original wrought iron knocker. A Tudor-arched sandstone inner entrance with a deep hollow chamfer bears an incised date of 1873 at the apex.

The building has a continuous nave and chancel plan with a cluster-truss roof consisting of grouped primary arched-braced collar trusses and plain intermediate principals, the latter from the 19th-century restoration. An encaustic tiled pavement lines the west end and central aisle. A primitive late-medieval oak tub font, possibly 14th-century, of polygonal type with a band of knobs towards the bottom, stands on a 19th-century circular limestone base. The 19th-century oak pews reuse some earlier, probably 17th-century pew ends with simple geometric tops and chip-carved decoration.

The chancel is stepped up and divided from the nave by relocated sections of carved late-medieval brattishing with blind Gothic arcading and crenellations. These sections originally came either from a former rood screen or formed wall plate decoration to the formerly waggon-vaulted chancel. A late 17th-century semi-octagonal pulpit with a dentilated and moulded cornice and applied geometric decoration to the upper panels stands in the chancel, with further pews serving as choirstalls. Polychromed tiles cover the chancel and sanctuary, the latter stepped up once more. Oak altar rails apparently reuse turned balusters of late 17th or early 18th-century type. The side walls display relocated sections of small-field panelling, originally from 17th or 18th-century box pews. A modern oak panelled reredos, dated 1962, occupies the east end.

The chancel contains several monuments. On the north wall is a small funerary monument to Jacob Conway of Efenechtyd, Gent., died 1718, in grey and white figured marble with a recessed inscription tablet, moulded cornice and shaped apron, with a ball flower pendant. Surmounting the cornice is a polychromed heraldic carving. Also on the north wall is a framed mural tablet in white figured marble to the Reverend John Guatti, A M of Jesus College, Oxford, died 1791, by J Nelson, sculptor of Shrewsbury. In the nave, on the north wall, is a plain inscribed slate tablet to the Price family of Plas, dated 1799 to 1836, and a primitive wooden painted and framed tablet to Catherine Lloyd, died 1810, with painted angel's heads in 17th-century manner. On the south wall is a simple classical funerary tablet in white marble to John Jones of Pen-y-Coed and Ty Draw, died 1813, and a simple small slate tablet to Catherine Parry, aged 5, died 1737.

A fragment of a post-Reformation wall painting depicting the Commandments in Welsh, painted in black-letter Gothic script, appears on the north wall of the chancel, with a later palimpsest in brown lettering. Also on the north wall is a wooden framed benefactors' board with painted letters in Welsh, dated 1787. The east window contains modern figurative glass, dated 1984.