Church of St Michael

Cadw's description

Location

In the centre of Brynford village, the W end facing the road.

History

1851-3 by T H Wyatt. One of two churches (the other at Gorsedd) built in place of St David, Pantasaph, which became a Roman Catholic church on the conversion of its donors, Lord and Lady Fielding. Each church was built with a rectory and school, those at Brynford now altered.

Exterior

Church in lancet style with W bellcote, nave, chancel, S porch and N vestry. Constructed of pecked snecked grey stone with yellow sandstone dressings under slate roofs. Gabled porch to L of centre with, raised copings, kneelers, angle buttresses to sides and ornate finial to gable apex. Pointed arched entrance with 2 orders of roll mouldings on circular columns with ringed capitals and bases, under a hoodmould with foliate end stops. The entrance contains double planked doors with ornate hinges and small pierced quatrefoils. Small pointed light to W side of porch. Single or paired lancets to nave and chancel, the hoodmoulds with foliate end stops. The nave has a sill band and 2 buttresses, R of centre and to the R end. To the L of the porch is a single lancet. To the R are 3 pairs of lancets followed by a single lancet. Lower narrower chancel with 2 single lancets. Setback buttresses to angles of chancel. The E window has 3 stepped lancets in plate tracery, the narrow hoodmould with head end bosses depicting a man and a woman.

The N side of the chancel has a single lancet, to the R of which is the small gabled vestry with basement storey. Ridge stack to rear with polygonal shafts. The gable end has a central planked door under a shouldered lintel. To the E side is a pair of small lancets under the eaves. Steps to the L lead down to the basement, which has a planked door to the L and small window blocked with stone to the R, both with shallow pointed heads. The N side of the nave has a sill band and 3 buttresses, offset to the L and R, and to the NW angle. There are 3 pairs of lancets and a single lancet 2nd from the L.

The W end, facing the road, is more ornate than the rest of the church. It has setback buttresses to the angles and a plinth with moulded string course. The bellcote has 2 arched openings for bells and decorative ridge tiles to the gable, and rises from an advanced central bay which has stepped sides. The bay is pierced by a double-chamfered pointed-arched window with raked sill which has 2 lancets and a quatrefoil in plate tracery. It is flanked by buttresses. Above is a sexfoiled circular window with dog-tooth moulding and a continuous hoodmould. Single lancets to each side of advanced central bay with sill bands and hoodmoulds bearing head end bosses, each with a man and a woman.

Interior

The nave is aisleless and has a wide 6-bay arched-brace roof on moulded corbels. Shallow pointed chancel arch with 2 orders of chamfers dying into the imposts. The chancel roof consists of closely spaced rafters incorporating scissor-braces above a cornice incorporating a nailhead frieze. The moulded rere arch of the E window has head stops showing a king and queen. A cusped N doorway to the vestry has a boarded door with strap hinges.

The octagonal font has dog-tooth enrichment at the angles of the blank faces of the bowl, and the stem is formed of clustered shafts. The pews are plain and moulded, the pulpit polygonal, each face having 2-light blind arches with geometrical tracery. The large organ, on the S side of the nave, is by Peter Conacher & Co of Huddersfield, and was installed c1902. The W window has a Victorian Coat of Arms, similar to the W window at Gorsedd. In the nave S wall is a window of the 1930s by Abbott & Co showing Christ as the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World (commemorating the Rev Edwards, d.1923). The nave N wall has a window by the same firm depicting Simeon holding the baby Jesus and Mary offering a sacrifice at the temple, with an inscription from the Nunc Dimittis.

Reason for designation

Listed as an early Gothic-revival style church by a well-known Victorian architect, the historical background of additional interest.