2086

 

II*  

Designated  

19/11/1953  

27/09/2001  

Church of St Michael  

 

Monmouthshire  

Mitchel Troy  

Monmouth  

Mitchel Troy  

349217  

210399  

 

In the centre of Mitchel Troy village, on the N side of the old road from Monmouth to Raglan.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

According to Bradney, the aisle arcades and the tower "are all that is left of the original church", by which he meant the C13 building; but a Norman font found nearby and now replaced in the church indicates that there was an ealier building on the site. Otherwise, apart from the medieval porch, the C14 nave arcades and chancel arch, the present church is largely the result of rebuilding between 1873 and 1876 by John Pritchard, the diocesan architect, for the 8th Duke of Beaufort, the patron; apart from the top stage of the tower, which was rebuilt 1909 by Ernest G Davies (replacing a spire which fell in the C18).  

A building of modest size in Decorated style, consisting of an unusual and rather narrow W tower with a battlemented top stage, nave with N and S aisles under carried-down roofs, a prominent S porch, and a relatively long chancel with a N vestry. The tower is constructed of a quartz conglomerate locally known as "pudding stone", with dressed quoins, and an ashlar top stage; the rest mostly of snecked reddish sandstone, with green slate roofs. At the W end the tower is flanked by buttresses at the junctions of the nave and aisles, and a deep chamfered string-course carries round all 3 about 1m above ground level. Immediately above this in the SW corner of the tower is a very large quoin stone with 2 lines of incised medieval lettering (now almost illegible but transcribed by Bradney as " + ORATE PRO GODEFRE / DO ET IOHANNE +"). The tower is of 3 unequal stages, the first extending to almost half the full height, the W side with very unusual offsets on 3 levels below the top, where a classical-style moulded cornice carries a slightly oversailing belfry stage. The 1st stage has a square-headed lancet, the 2nd stage has a smaller one, and the belfry stage has a 2-centred arched 2-light window in each side, with stone-louvred trefoil-headed lights and a cinquefoil in the head. At a high level on either side of the tower is a small trefoil-headed 1-light window to the nave, and a similar window lights the W end of each aisle at a lower level. The nave and aisles are 3 bays in length, the roof swept down to a low level on both sides. In the centre of the S side is a large medieval gabled porch which has a 2-centred arched outer doorway with a moulded surround, and a triangular-arched inner doorway with similar surround. Each of the other bays has a square-headed 2-light mullioned window, and aligned with these on the roof are steeply-gabled 2-light dormers with trefoil-headed lights and trefoils in the heads. The N side has similar fenestration except that there is a 3-light window in the centre and dormers aligned with that and the window to the east. The W end of each aisle has an unusual 3-light window with sloped head parallel with the roof line. The chancel has a trefoil-headed 1-light window near each end, a cinquefoil-headed priest door close to that on the left, and a restored 3-light east window with foiled spherical-triangle tracery in the head.  

Wide, low and relatively dark. Three-bay N and S arcades of generously-proportioned 2-centred arches in an unusual style: the piers are cruciform in section with rebated convex moulding to the 8 corners, and without capitals, the moulding continued round the 2-centred arches. The N arcade was blocked until the 1870s restoration, and in place of the W arch there is now a 3-light organ-chamber window with slender shafts and crocketed canopies. The nave has a Victorian timbered roof with arch-braced collar trusses. The chancel arch is similar to the aisle arches but larger. The chancel has its floor raised by 2 steps, and the sanctuary by a further 3 steps; a wagon roof; and commemorative plaques on both sides. The roof timbers and the benches throughout are of pitch pine. In the S aisle to the left of the doorway is a Norman tub font; to the right a Victorian marble font (by Pritchard) with water lilies and passion flowers carved on the rim and netted fish below, the pedestal surrounded by green and red marble shafts. A large inscription on the wall to the W of the doorway reads "To the Glory of God this church of St Michael and All Angels, built AD1208, was reconstructed Aug.4th AD 1876 / Henry Charles Fitzroy Somerset 8th Duke of Beaufort KG, Patron / B.W.Everett BA, Rector / O.A.Wyatt Esqr / W.W.Oakley Esqr. Church Wardens". One of the plaques on the N wall of the chancel commemorates the Reverend Henry George Talbot (d.1867), for 42 years rector of this parish with Cwmcarvan; eldest son of the Very Reverend Charles Talbot, Dean of Salisbury, and of the Lady Elizabeth Somerset, daughter of Henry 5th Duke of Beaufort, K.C.; married to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Honourable Sir William Ponsonby, K.C.B.; buried at All Hallows St Giles in the County of Dorset.  

Listed as grade II* not only because it incorporates a significant amount of medieval fabric but also for the richly-detailed Victorian interior resulting from the patronage of the Beaufort estate.