2715

 

I  

Designated  

18/11/1980  

22/06/2000  

Church of St Michael and All Angels  

 

Monmouthshire  

Llantrisant Fawr  

Usk  

Gwernesney  

341489  

201805  

 

Situated some 2 km ENE of Usk junction of A449, just N of B4235.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Anglican parish church, C13 origins, mostly C15, small and similar to other Vale of Usk churches. Restored and reseated 1854 by Prichard & Seddon.  

Parish church, rubble stone with slate roofs. Nave, chancel, S porch and W gabled bellcote. Coped shouldered gables. W end has big battered plinth, pointed chamfered doorway with plank door, gabled stone hoodmould and relieving arch. Two much-eroded carved stone heads in wall above, and single lancet in gable. Another carved head corbel under S end of gable coping (gable is asymmetric, slightly longer on S). C19 gabled bellcote has 2 C13 bells. Body of church has C15 windows. S porch has coped gable, and fine C15 moulded pointed arch to entry. Two benches within, restored C15 panelled roof with moulded wallplate, and moulded ribs to 4x3 open panels. Chamfered S doorway with barred stop, stone voussoirs over and plank door. Stoup in right corner. Unusual cast-iron C19 plaque recording grant for repewing. Small 2-light late medieval window to left of porch, with segmental-pointed heads and indented spandrels. Window to right is Perpendicular style flat-headed 2-light, deep-set with ogee heads and hoodmould with carved stops. Chancel S window is similar, S wall apparently rebuilt in C19. E window plain 2-light, cusped arched lights under rough relieving arch. Nave N has chamfered oak wallplate, rebuilt buttress at NE corner, first window with pair of cusped narrow lancets, second C19 Bath stone Perp. style. Chancel N wall appears rebuilt, with pier at left end.  

Fine interior, nave has late medieval arched ceiling with moulded ribs and 6x8 plaster panels. Moulded wallplates. Rubble stone walls. Nave W end has segmental-pointed doorhead and deep splayed reveals to lancet above. Segmental-pointed arch over S door, nave S window has uneven splays, N windows have C19 surrounds raised for wall plaster. E wall has 2 corbels under apex. Rough pointed chancel arch, chamfered and stopped at level of beam of late medieval screen. Screen appears much altered, it rests irregularly on 2 corbels, and the main mouldings are over the chancel arch, but the beam continues right out to wall on left, with simplified mouldings. To the right it stops just after the corbel. Filled mortices along the top, perhaps for loft floor joists. Moulding is deeply undercut concave, between two beads, bead moulds also above. Screen has 2 panels each side of entry. Side panels have surviving tracery with rosettes in heads, ogee moulded posts, tracery of centre is mostly lost. Faded pattern painting in gold on posts and also on boards affixed to panels below rails, probably C19. Another plain beam above screen. Chancel has 3-sided plastered ceiling, 2 partly ceiled trusses with chamfered tie-beams and stepped hollow moulded stops. Blocked opening on N side. Small shelf or aumbry in NE angle. Chamfered depressed arched head to E window, with stone voussoirs. Communion rail with sturdy turned balusters late C17 or earlier C18, similar to those in Llangeview church. Monuments: W end sandstone plaque to John Jenkins d1727 and eroded plaque to William Williams of Usk, d1798. N plaque to John Pollard d1786. Lettered floor slabs in chancel. Heavily retooled octagonal font, with concave underside, round shaft and water-holding moulding to base. Font is enclosed by two-sided screen, said to have previously enclosed a manorial pew. The top rail with pulvinated frieze is presumably C17, but the ogee-moulded uprights and rails may be C15 to C16, the uprights grooved for tracery. Irregularities in the mouldings suggest that it has been reassembled, but the corner post suggests from a corner site, and none of the timbers conform to those in the surviving parts of the chancel screen. 3-1-3 bays to N, 3-3 bays to E. C19 bench pews, plain C19 timber pulpit, removed from Kemeys Inferior church and C19 chancel stalls.  

Graded I as a substantially complete medieval church including unrestored interior with surviving screens.