5492

 

II  

Designated  

30/01/1968  

20/10/1998  

Church of St Michael (new church)  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog  

 

Gaerwen  

247834  

372018  

N  

Set back from the N side of the A5 (T) at the western end of the village of Gaerwen, in walled churchyard with lychgate.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Erected at Gaerwen in 1847. The design of the church was the result of a collaboration between Henry Kennedy, architect of Bangor, and an amateur architect (name unknown). The parish of Llanfihangel Esgeifiog underwent a number of changes in the early C19. There was a growth in population around the Pentre Berw area, brought about by the influx of workers to the nearby coalmines, and the building of Telford's new road across the island also led to an increase in population along its route. In the 1840's it was decided to build a new church and National School at the present, more central, location in Gaerwen.  

Decorated Gothic style church; nave of 5 bays with shorter, narrower chancel with N vestry, and SW porch. Built of local rubble with gritstone dressings; slate roof with stone copings, ashlar bellcote at W end and crosses at each E gable apex. Nave bays are articulated by buttresses, with diagonal buttresses at the corners; the chancel has lateral buttresses. Nave, chancel and vestry walls and buttresses have a continuous plinth; a continuous moulded string forms the sill band to the pointed-arched windows and hood band to the square-framed windows. Nave N wall has 5 windows, each with paired trefoil-headed lights, quatrefoil above, in a pointed-arched frame with hoodmould; similarly detailed windows are in each of the 4 bays E of the porch in the S wall of the nave. The window in the easternmost bay of the S nave wall is a single ogee-headed light in a square frame; a similarly detailed window is in the lower part of the W gable wall, the gallery window above is an octofoil light in a circular frame; hoodmould with human head stops. The bellcote is of slender ashlar masonry, gabled and carries two bells within its traceried openings, it is carried by a corbel table with arcade of 3 pointed arches, the rectangular block above is decorated with paired recessed panels containing cusped, intertwined tracery designs and the bellcote above has a steeply pitched roof surmounted by a cross. The chancel S wall has a single trefoil-headed light in a pointed-arched frame with hoodmould; a similarly detailed window is in the N wall of the N vestry, the E wall has a pointed-arched doorway with hoodmould. The E chancel window is the only stained glass window, the others being plain leaded lights, a pointed-arched window of 3 trefoil-headed lights, geometric tracery and hoodmould. Entrance to the church is through a narrow pointed-arched doorway in the SW porch; porch has a steeply pitched slate roof with stone copings.  

The inner porch door is a pointed-arched sandstone doorway with hollow chamfered surround, this leads to the nave of 11 roof bays with gallery at the W end. The gallery has a moulded rail supported on stick balusters with cusped tracery detail at the upper part; this open front is over a moulded wooden cornice and the whole is supported on 4 widely spaced columns. The nave has exposed rafters and collared trusses with curving cusped braces carried down to wall posts on moulded corbels, above the collar the cusped braces form trefoils in each lower angle. The chancel, through a hollow moulded pointed arch, is raised by 3 steps; exposed roof of 3 bays with collared trusses with curved, cusped braces down to wall posts on human head corbels. The sanctuary is raised by 2 steps, has a moulded rail on twisted stanchions with floriate brackets and the walls clad with wooden panelling; both chancel and sanctuary have encaustic tiles. The E chancel window is of biblical scenes, in remembrance of Rev E W Griffith, d.1896. The S wall of the chancel has a blocked recess bearing 2 plaques; the uppermost a slate memorial to Thomas Michael Esq, d.1683. The lower, brass plaque to Lewis Williams, d.1670 (reset from the old church). The pulpit is octagonal with 4 facing panels bearing recessed panels decorated with cusped tracery designs. The gritstone font is octagonal with a slightly tapering bowl set on a stone pillar on a square plinth. The church also contains some of the seats from the old church, one in the chancel carved T M 1684, another below the gallery carved R B W M 1744; the bell from the old church is situated by the pulpit, C14, inscribed MICHAEL and bearing a stamp of the Virgin and Child.  

Listed as a Gothic Revival church, a consistent interpretation of the Decorated style which includes a well-detailed interior. Part of a group with the nearby school.