Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Catholic Church of St Michael
Brecon, Powys, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Religious, Ritual and Funerary
- Date of designation
- 16 December 1976
- Date of amendment
- 30 May 2024
- Welsh name
- Eglwys Gatholig Sant Mihangel
- Town
- Brecon
- Community
- Brecon
- Unitary authority
- Powys
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 51.94700, -3.39227
- Cadw reference
- 7020
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1608 "(13) Cambriae Typus." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Cadw's description
Location
On the corner with St Michael Street.
History
Built 1851 by Charles Hansom, architect (1816-88), one of the leading architects of Roman Catholic churches in the mid-C19. Brecon had been a centre of Catholic recusancy and was served by a resident priest from 1788. By 1850 there were around 200 regular worshippers and a larger church was required in place of the chapel that had been established by the first resident priest in a converted inn, in the late C18. The exterior of the church survives largely unaltered. The interior has been reordered and redecorated (including renovations of repainting and recarpeting, 2010 under Fr Ross Patterson) but largely retains its original character. The great Spanish soprano Adelina Patti, who lived at Craig-y-Nos Castle, married her third husband, Baron Cederstrom in the church in 1899.
Exterior
Simple Gothic style. Walls faced with grey rubble arranged in courses; pale ashlar dressings. Slate roof. Narrow SE (liturgical W) end of church facing Wheat Street with flanking buttress, battered plinth; shallow projection in centre with its sides tapering inwards towards apex of gable; two-light window at ground level and a small canopied niche above; bellcote with 2 openings, its gable with cruciform finial. Small Gothic archway to R. Buttressed SW wall of nave of 5 bays; battered plinth and tall narrow lancet windows; gabled ashlar entrance towards E end of SW nave wall. Lower chancel with group of 3 lancets, gabled end with 3-light Decorated style window with coloured borders with sacred monograms.
Interior
Nave of 5 bays has timber roof with scissor trusses and wall-posts on corbels. Organ gallery at Wheat Street end of church. Tall chancel arch; scissor truss roof also to chancel; to R in chancel, doorway and 2 recesses (piscina and a sedile) with trefoil heads. Immediately inside the main door is an octagonal stone font, probably Hansom. W gallery with replacement organ installed 2014.
Reason for designation
Included for its special architectural interest as a relatively unaltered and early example of a Catholic church, by a leading architect in this field. Group value with Presbytery to rear, and Hall to N.
Nearby in the register
- Front Wing of St Michael's HallReligious, Ritual and Funeraryunder 1 mi
- Presbytery to the Catholic Church of St Michael, including boundary wallReligious, Ritual and Funeraryunder 1 mi
- 10 Wheat StreetDomesticunder 1 mi
- Ruperra House, including pavement cobbles to front.Domesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.