Church of St Michael and All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

This is an Anglican parish church of rubble stone with slate roofs, comprising a west tower, south porch, nave, chancel, and a large north-east chapel.

The west tower dates from the late 15th to early 16th century and is built of squared red sandstone with Tudor details. It is unbuttressed and rises in two stages, with the upper two-thirds and the north-east stair tower finished in smoother, almost ashlar stone. The tower has a battered plinth with heavy top moulding and a moulded course between stages below the embattled parapet. The west door is segmental-pointed with double ovolo moulding, a hoodmould and voussoirs above. Above this is a flat-headed two-light window with segmental-pointed heads to the lights, hoodmoulds and a relieving arch. Similar louvred bell-openings occur on each side without relieving arches. The tower's south side has a similar single light breaking the string course, with a hoodmould.

The nave has a south two-light flat-headed window to the left of the porch with curved heads to the lights, dating from the 16th or 17th century, and a 15th-century flat-headed three-light window to the right with renewed cusped ogee tracery and a small rectangular light to the right, which lit the rood loft. The porch is 19th century with a coped gable, low angle buttresses and a pointed entry, but contains within it a medieval pointed chamfered south doorway. The nave wall is of rough rubble with traces of limewash.

The chancel roof is very slightly lower than the nave, with 19th-century coping to the east gable. The chancel's south side has a renewed Tudor-arched south door, chamfered with a diagonal stop, and a 15th-century three-light window similar to that in the nave but with a hoodmould. The chancel has a large ashlar three-light Perpendicular style east window with cusped ogee heads to the lights, dating from around 1869.

The north-east chapel is an addition, evident from the straight joint visible in the masonry. It has a broad roof with coped gables. Its east wall shows a blocked broad window with stone voussoirs, possibly of the 18th century, with two moulded stringcourses below it, the lower one ovolo-moulded and the upper one a cove, both cut by the blocked window. On the north side are two 15th- or 16th-century two-light windows with cusped heads and hoodmoulds, which also break the upper string course and are returned around the west end. These windows are obscured by a 19th-century lean-to vestry with a coped north gable, a north end door and south single-light and two-light windows, with a chimney on the roof slope between. The nave's north side has two 19th-century two-light windows with curved heads to the lights and a step in the masonry to the left for the rood stair. There is also a blocked small early window, possibly 12th or 13th century.

Interior

The interior walls are of rubble stone. At the west end are painted grained panelled doors in a panelled infill to a 15th- or 16th-century segmental-pointed tower arch with an inner arch dying into piers with ovolo mouldings. The tower has a boarded ceiling, and the west door and window above are in deep reveals with stone voussoirs. The nave's west end has a 20th-century organ loft.

The nave has a broad seven-bay arch-braced collar-truss roof with windbracing and three tie-beams, all of 1869. There is a segmental-pointed arch to the south door with stone voussoirs. To the north is a restored moulded rood-stair door with a depressed-arched head and mural stairs rising to the former rood-loft door in the north-east angle.

The chancel arch is broad and segmental-pointed with two chamfers dying into the sides, possibly pre-15th century. The chancel has a three-bay roof of 1869 with arch-braced collars and a brattished wall plate. The 19th-century east window has shafts. The south side retains its 15th-century three-light window and a low south door with a segmental-pointed head of two stones. On the north side is an exceptional two-bay late 16th-century arcade to the north chapel, with Tudor arches on an octagonal centre pier. The arches are in two orders, with double recessed chamfers on the chancel side, while the chapel side has double wave moulding on the leading edges without a hood mould. The pier has a fluted neck with a rope-mould above, below a coved capital. Above the arcade is a reset stiff-leaf corbel, possibly 13th century.

The north-east chapel has a broad roof, probably of 1869, with tie-beams, arch-braced collars and windbracing. Its east wall shows marks of a blocked window. The west wall has a blocked long opening to the right of centre (possibly a former window) and a straight joint to the far left, marking the original nave's north-east corner. A segmental-pointed west door with stone voussoirs opens into the 19th-century vestry.

Fittings

A remarkable font of ashlar appears to be made up of different medieval pieces. The top is a shallow square bowl with an ovolo top and angle mouldings, standing on a tapering lobed underside that does not appear to be of the same piece. The eight lobes are divided by raised fillets, with the four cardinal lobes fluted, and sit above a ring moulding. This stands on a panelled tapering octagonal shaft mounted on a moulded circular base. The rood beam commemorates Reverend J. Ward (died 1917). The altar is a mid to later 20th-century creation with a painted carved panel of St Michael. There is a panelled pulpit, pews and an organ.

Stained Glass

The nave's south first window dates from after 1945 and depicts Christ and a woman full of good works. The south second window is of fine quality, made by C.E. Kempe in 1901 in memory of Augusta Stear (died 1899), showing Saints Mary, James and John. The nave's north window depicts Saints Ambrose and Augustine in memory of H. Cromwell (died 1901), richly coloured and also by C.E. Kempe. The chancel's east window shows Christ, Saints Michael and Peter, made in 1916 by Kempe & Co in memory of Captain G.P. Steer (died 1915). The chancel's south three-light window was made in 1905 by Heaton, Butler & Bayne and shows the Good Shepherd with Saints Stephen and Lawrence, though of lesser quality.

Monuments

The north-east chapel's north wall retains a remnant of an elaborate 16th-century alabaster monument to a member of the Morgan family. It has an altar recess framed by side piers with fruit, shields and tablets, a top piece with an inscription from Philippians 1:21, the date 1590, and the Morgan arms above. The east wall has a memorial to Lady Mary Blount (died 1657) in ashlar with marble panels in pilasters and frieze, with a Latin inscription repeated on a 17th-century brass plaque below. There is a circular plaque to Maria Kemeys of Maendy (died 1798) on dark square panels with a draped urn above. A large marble memorial to Martin Kuyck van Meirop, a Dutch merchant who died at Mynydd Mawr in 1775, features a sarcophagus plaque beneath a black pyramid between urns, with carving below the plaque, set within a crude ashlar frame with side piers, an arched head and keystone. A marble plaque to R.B. Bowling, barrister, who died at Llantarnam Abbey in 1859, was made by James of Newport. An ashlar memorial to Amy George, 1728, has a gadrooned shelf under the plaque flanked by thin columns with crude leaf capitals and an ogee cornice. The west wall has a neo-Grec scroll to E.F. Blewitt of Llantarnam Abbey (died 1868) by A.H. James of Newport, a neo-Grec plaque to Edmund Blewitt, barrister (died 1834) by Wood of Bristol, and an ashlar memorial to Mary McNamara (died 1791) with pilasters and a broken pediment.

The chancel's south wall has a memorial with an urn and branches to Ann Williams, Mary Williams and Edward Walters (died 1829-34) by Davies of Usk, an oval plaque in a painted moulded frame with carved spandrels to Henery Lawrence (died 1802), and a small urn memorial to Ann Jones (died circa 1760) above a plaque to Blanch Jones (died 1804) by Drewett & Co of Bristol.

The nave's north side has a memorial with a flaming urn to M and H Phillips (died 1804 and 1808) by Jones, Dunn & Tyley of Bristol, a painted plaque with a rustic winged circular face to Martha Absalom (died 1770), an eroded plaque with an hourglass in a broken curved pediment and a skull below to Ann Dentt (died 1676), and a memorial to W. Williams (died 1836) with an urn above and reversed torches by T. Davies of Usk. The nave's south side has a plaque with a shell motif at the head of a carved border to Henry James (died 1764), a scroll plaque to Jane Johnson (died 1841) by Watkins of Newport, and a plaque to William Harris (died 1815) with pilasters.