87659

 

II  

Designated  

18/09/2012  

18/09/2012  

Church of St Michael  

 

Gwynedd  

Ffestiniog  

 

Llan Ffestiniog  

269938  

341900  

 

On a promontory of high ground at the western end of Llan Ffestiniog, set back slightly from the informal village square.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Designed by Henry Kennedy, a prominent architect in North Wales in the second half of the C19 and for most of that time serving as Diocesan architect. Constructed 1843-5 on the site of an earlier church and in response to local population growth associated with slate quarrying in the area. The Neo-Norman style was briefly popular for church architecture in the 1830s and 1840s and St Michael's was described by Samuel Lewis in 1849 as 'one of the neatest and most commodious churches in North Wales'. Kennedy also used this style for Llanllechid (1844) before adopting the Gothic style approved by the Ecclesiological Society for church building. Restored in 1913 by Harold Hughes.  

Neo-Norman parish church of nave, chancel, west bellcote (replacing original spirelet), south porch and north vestry. Grey limestone, round-arched windows with linking string course and shallow buttresses and low plinth. Nave of 5 bays, western bay blind. West end with 3 windows and tall gable window above. East window with 3 lights under a big arched hood. Gablet crosses to east gable of nave and chancel. Slate roof. South porch added in restoration of 1913.  

Broad interior, roof formed of slender trusses sprung from corbels, and with open framing. Short chancel with a flat roll moulded horseshoe chancel arch on fat round columns. Deep timber gallery to west end set on stone columns. Square timber pulpit, Font in silver granite. Late C19 stained glass E window, S window by CC Powell c.1944, N window by Jones & Willis, c.1914.  

Included as a well preserved mid C19 parish church, of special architectural interest for the use of the Neo-Norman style, one of the few examples in Wales of this style. Also important for its special historic interest as an early building by one of the major architects of the Victorian period in North Wales and an unusual example of his early work before he adopted the more acceptable Gothic style. Group Value with other listed items nearby.