Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
23944
Building Number
Grade
II*
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
18/08/2000
Date of Amendment
14/09/2007
Name of Property
Church of St Michael and All Angels
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Rhondda Cynon Taff
Community
Llantrisant
Town
Pontypridd
Locality
Beddau
Easting
305996
Northing
184946
Street Side
S
Location
Set within a square grassed enclosure and surrounded by housing.
Description
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
History
The church was built in 1936, to the design of Lady Juliet Rhys-Williams of Miskin Manor, and the agent to the estate, Arthur Thomas. The church is a remarkable example of modernism, built in what would then have been quite a rural context. Its sources are continental - either Dutch or (perhaps more likely), French: there are stylistic connections with the work of Auguste Perret, and the 'Chantiers du Cardinal' idiom developed for the construction of churches in the Paris area after 1931. The lady of the manor had apparently studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Exterior
Nave and chancel in one with heightened E end, S porch and N porch. Rendered and whitened under slate roofs. The heightened section has a pitched roof and is slate hung on the W side. It is stepped in 4 times with a narrow E gable end. Two-tier plinth, which is 3-tier to the heightened section and 1-tier to the porches. The W end has angle pilasters and a raised central section, against which is a gabled doorcase of the same width. This contains a doorway with triangular head and 3 orders of angular mouldings containing double planked doors. Above is a circular 'Star of David' window, and in the gable, a recessed cross. Flanking the doorcase are narrow windows with 5 vertically-aligned panes. The S side of the church has a gabled porch offset to the R, with an angle buttress behind it and to the L. The porch has a doorway with triangular head and 2 orders of angular mouldings containing a planked door. Incised cross above doorway. Small pentagonal windows to side walls of porch. To the L of the porch are 3 pentagonal windows, and to the R, a star-shaped window. Each of the 4 faces of the heightened E section has a narrow light, 3 panes high. These lights step up towards the E. The E end has a circular 'Star of David' window, and a recessed cross above. The N side is as the S side, except that a bell is fixed to the wall between the central and R pentagonal windows, and there is no buttress behind the porch.
Interior
Panelled ceiling to nave and chancel in 5 canted sections. The ceiling is raised above the altar with light entering from the sides. Triangular heads to doorways. Two steps up to chancel, octagonal stone pulpit to L with recessed panels, and pipe organ to R. Panelled choir stalls in modern style. Altar in same style as pulpit behind a metal rail. Small octagonal stone font to W end. Stained glass to star-shaped windows in chancel, both memorials of the 1990s; fruit and foliage to N and a dove to S.
Reason for designation
Listed at II* as a remarkable essay in modern movement architecture; a rare and early example of expressionism in church architecture in Wales.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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