Church of Michael & All Angels

Church of Michael & All Angels

This is a Grade II* listed church built in the Gothic style, comprising a nave and chancel beneath a single roof, with a south porch and a west bellcote that replaces an earlier tower. The church is dated 1895, as inscribed on tablets at both ends of the nave.

The exterior walls are constructed of snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings. The nave and porch feature this stonework, while the chancel is of snecked stone with freestone dressings and buttresses. Both sections are roofed in tile. The porch has a timber-framed gable nominally carried on two head corbels, and contains a segmental-headed doorway with continuous chamfer and boarded doors with strap hinges.

The south wall features paired cusped lights in the windows—a single pair to the left of the porch and three pairs to the right. A buttress marks the division between nave and chancel. The two-bay chancel has lower buttresses, with a segmental-headed doorway in the left-hand bay (fitted with strap hinges) and paired lights under a single relieving arch in the right-hand bay. The simple east window contains three cusped lights under a relieving arch. The north side is unbuttressed, with the chancel having a single cusped window and the nave five single cusped windows. The west wall displays a shallow rubble-stone projection that represents the east wall of the former tower, into which a segmental-headed three-light window has been inserted into what was originally a doorway. The triple bellcote consists of stone ends and posts to the long sides, carrying a hipped roof with swept projecting eaves.

Interior

The nave and chancel feature a 14-bay arched-brace roof, largely from the 15th century though with some replacement elements. Tie beams span to alternate trusses, and there are three tiers of wind braces, the upper ones inverted. At the west end is a segmental recess with a plaster vault. The wood-panelled northwest vestry dates to the late 19th century. A large stoup in the south wall, probably reset in 1895, stands beneath a trefoil head. The chancel contains a trefoil-headed piscina.

The richest feature is the medieval rood screen, which has a broad central doorway flanked by seven narrow lights with delicate open tracery, above a panelled dado. The embossed and ribbed coving is supported by two additional posts flanking the doorway, which are surmounted by late 19th-century figures. The nave side of the coving has been restored, but the chancel side retains original coving with faded monochrome painted panels, including Tudor roses. Above the coving is a moulded cornice.

The 14th-century font is octagonal, set on a chamfered square stem and base. The pulpit is panelled with low-relief decoration. Late 19th-century pews and stalls feature moulded square ends. The wooden altar rail, with turned balusters and square posts to the gate, is 18th century. The nave north wall bears a brass war memorial plaque, and the chancel north wall displays a freestone tablet to Samuel Evans (died 1835) by E. Kinsey of Caersws.

Stained Glass

All windows save one contain stained glass from the mid to late 20th century. Many are by Powell & Sons of Whitefriars, London. The east window, dated 1954, depicts Christ with Saints John and Paul. In the nave north wall is a window showing Christ as the Light of the World, post-1951, and in the south wall are New Testament scenes including the Good Shepherd, post-1960. The westernmost window in the south wall contains a figure of Saint Peter, originally made for St Peter, Crug-y-byddar, but moved here in 2003 and signed by Powells. Other unsigned windows, also likely from Powell & Sons, appear in the nave north wall (the Good Shepherd, Virgin and Child, and a World War II memorial window of a knight ascending to heaven) and in the south wall (the Resurrection and Ascension, post-1947). Two windows are by Celtic Studios of Swansea: one in the south wall showing Christ with shepherds (dated 1986), and one in the chancel north window depicting Mary Magdalene with the risen Christ (dated 1985).