8791

 

II*  

Designated  

24/10/1951  

24/08/2004  

Church of Michael & All Angels  

 

Powys  

Beguildy  

 

Beguildy  

319443  

279732  

 

Within a churchyard on the W side and set above the B4355, entered from a lane on the S side.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

A medieval church first mentioned in 1291. The plan of the nave and chancel was in existence by the late medieval period, as shown by the survival of the roof, and had a W tower. However, the chancel was rebuilt in 1885, while the remainder of the church was restored in 1895-6 by W.H. Bryden, architect, who rebuilt the walls and replaced the fallen W tower with a bellcote.  

A Gothic style church comprising nave and chancel under a single roof, S porch and W bellcote replacing an earlier tower. The nave and porch are of snecked rock-faced stone with freestone dressings and the N and S nave walls have tablets inscribed '1895' at each end. The chancel is of snecked stone with freestone dressings and buttresses. Both are under a tile roof. The porch has a timber-framed gable, notionally carried on 2 head corbels. Inside is a segmental-headed doorway with continuous chamfer and boarded doors with strap hinges. S windows are paired cusped lights, a single pair L of the porch and 3 pairs to the R. A buttress is between nave and chancel. The 2-bay chancel also has lower buttresses, with segmental-headed doorway to the L-hand bay, with strap hinges, and paired lights under a single relieving arch to the R-hand bay. The simple E window is 3 cusped lights under a relieving arch. The N side is unbuttressed. The chancel has a single cusped window, the nave 5 single cusped windows. The W wall has a shallow rubble-stone projection, in effect the E wall of the former tower, with segmental-headed 3-light window inserted into a former doorway. The triple bellcote has stone ends and posts to the long sides, carrying a hipped roof with swept projecting eaves.  

Nave and chancel have a 14-bay arched-brace roof, mainly C15 but with some replacement, with tie beams to alternate trusses and 3 tiers of wind braces, the upper inverted. At the W end is a segmental recess with plaster vault. The wood-panelled NW vestry is late C19. A large stoup in the S wall, probably re-set in 1895, is under a trefoil head. The chancel has a trefoil-headed piscina. The rich medieval rood screen has a broad central doorway, flanked by 7 narrow lights with delicate open tracery, above a panelled dado. The embossed and ribbed coving is supported by 2 additional posts flanking the doorway, which are surmounted by late C19 figures. The nave side of the coving has been restored, but on the chancel side the original coving retains faded monochrome painted panels, including Tudor roses. Above the coving is a moulded cornice. The C14 font is octagonal on a chamfered square stem and base. The panelled pulpit has low-relief decoration. Late C19 pews and stalls have moulded square ends. The wooden altar rail, with turned balusters and square posts to the gate, is C18. In the nave N wall is a brass war memorial plaque. The chancel N wall has a freestone tablet to Samuel Evans (d 1835) by E. Kinsey of Caersws. All bar one of the windows have mid-late C20 stained glass. Many are by Powell & Sons of Whitefriars, London: The E window, dated 1954, depicts Christ with SS John and Paul. In the nave N wall is a window with Christ as the Light of the World, post 1951, and in the S wall New Testament scenes including the Good Shepherd, post 1960. The westernmost window in the S wall has a figure of St Peter, originally made for St Peter, Crug-y-byddar, but moved here in 2003 and signed by Powells. Other, unsigned windows that might also be from the same workshop are, in the N wall of the nave, the Good Shepherd, Virgin and Child, and a World War II memorial window of a knight ascending to heaven, while in the S wall is a window depicting the Resurrection and Ascension, post 1947. Two windows are by Celtic Studios of Swansea: In the S wall is Christ with shepherds, dated 1986, and in the chancel N window Mary Magdalene with the risen Christ, dated 1985.  

Listed grade II* for its special architectural interest as a medieval church with fine interior structure and exceptional medieval rood screen.