Church of St Michael and All Angels, Aberystwyth
{{Short description|Church in Ceredigion, Wales}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox church
| name = St Michael's Church | fullname = Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels
| image = Aberystwyth - panoramio (20).jpg
| imagesize = | imagealt =
| caption = St Michael's with the Old College to the left
| pushpin map = Wales Ceredigion | pushpin map alt = | pushpin mapsize = 150 | map caption = Location in Ceredigion
| location = Aberystwyth, Ceredigion| country = Wales
| coordinates = {{coord|52.4141|-4.0883|region:GB_type:landmark|display=title}} | osgraw =
| denomination = Church in Wales | churchmanship = | membership = | attendance =
| website = [http://stmikes.org.uk/ St Michael's Church] | former name =
| bull date = | founded date = | founder = | dedication = | dedicated date = | consecrated date =
| cult = | relics = | events = | past bishop =
| people = Rev. Canon Mark Ansell (Priest in charge). Rev. Cei Rees (Priest in charge)
| status = | functional status = Active | heritage designation = Grade II | designated date = 27 July 1961
| architect =
| architectural type = Church | style = Gothic Revival
| groundbreaking = | completed date = 1890 | construction cost = | closed date = | demolished date = | capacity = | length = | width = | width nave = | height = | diameter = | other dimensions = | floor count = | floor area =
| materials = Body of church: rubble
Roof: slate
}}
St Michael's Church is a parish church in the town of Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales. St Michael's is the fourth church to stand on the site. The first dated from the 15th century but was in ruins by the mid-18th century. Its replacement only stood for some forty years before itself being replaced in 1829-1833 with a church designed by Edward Haycock Sr. of Shrewsbury. Nothing of the two earlier buildings remains. The Haycock church was itself superseded by the present church, built by Nicholson & Son of Hereford in 1886-1890. A fragment of the Haycock church remains to the west of the current building.
St Michael's is an active parish church in the Diocese of St Davids. At the end of the 20th century it claimed the largest Anglican congregation in Wales. It is designated by Cadw as a Grade II listed building.
History
The town of Aberystwyth developed around the Norman castle.{{sfn|Lloyd|Orbach|Scourfield|2006|p=401}} Four churches have stood on the site. In the 15th century a church dedicated to St Mary was constructed between the castle and the sea. This church, in ruins by 1748, and its short-lived successor, were replaced by a third church constructed in 1829-1833 by Edward Haycock Sr. Haycock was commissioned by William Edward Powell.{{efn|Haycock also undertook work for Powell at his country house, Nanteos,{{sfn|Colvin|1978|p=407}}}} a local landowner and Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiganshire from 1816 until shortly before he died in 1854. Powell was made High Sheriff in 1810 and Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire in 1817.{{sfn|Dictionary of Welsh Biography}} He lived at Nanteos and developed much of Aberystwyth in the 1820s; including Laura Place which fronts the present church.{{sfn|Lloyd|Orbach|Scourfield|2006|p=425}}
By the later 19th century, the accelerating development of Aberystwyth as a seaside resort brought calls for a larger, and more impressive church.{{sfn|Dyer|2021|p=28}} A later William Powell donated further land at Laura Place for the building of a new church in the 1880s.{{sfn|Cadw 2013|p=45}} Powell commissioned designs for the new structure from Nicholson & Son of Hereford and the present church was built between 1886-1890.{{sfn|National Churches Trust}}{{efn|Material relating to the construction and destruction of the churches on the Laura Place site is held in the National Archive.{{sfn|The National Archives}} }} The west vestry is all that remains of Haycock's church,{{sfn|Coflein 2014}} This fragment is a Grade II listed building.{{NHAW|num=10256|desc=Former Vestry to Parish Church of St Michael & All Angels|grade=II|access-date=16 October 2022}}{{efn|An oil painting of 1850 by an unknown artist depicting Edward Haycock Sr.'s church is held in the Ceredigion Museum.{{Cite web|url=https://artuk.org/shop/image-library/gallery-product/poster/castle-house-and-st-michaels-church-aberystwyth-182231/posterid/182231.html|title=Castle House and St Michael's Church, Aberystwyth|publisher=Art UK|website=artuk.org|access-date=16 October 2022}}}}
The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard celebrated the opening of the new church on 3 October 1890, congratulating "all those who desire to see the town beautified, or who think that a building devoted to the highest purpose should be of the best that human beings can devise and reasonably provide".{{Cite web|url=https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3312140/3312146|title=Opening of St Michael's Church, Aberystwyth|publisher=The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard|website=newspapers.library.wales|date=3 October 1890|access-date=16 October 2022}} Further work was carried out on the development of the church in the first half of the 20th century.{{NHAW|num=10255|desc=Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels|grade=II|access-date=16 October 2022}} Major repairs were undertaken to the church roof in the 21st century, following storm damage from Cyclone Dirk.{{cite web|url= https://www.jamespantyfedwen.cymru/case.html?id=42|title=Beneficiaries - St Michael's Church|publisher=James Pantyfedwen Foundation|access-date=16 October 2022}}
St Michael's remains an active parish church in the Evangelical tradition.{{cite web|url=http://stmikes.org.uk/about/|title=About Us - Welcome page|publisher=Church of St Michael and All Angels Church|access-date=16 October 2022}} Services are regularly held.{{cite web|url=http://stmikes.org.uk/stmikesonline/#services|title=About Us - Services|publisher=Church of St Michael and All Angels|access-date=16 October 2022}} In the late 20th/early 21st centuries, the church claimed the largest Anglican congregation in Wales.{{cite web|url=https://anglican.ink/2022/10/09/new-bishops-for-the-anglican-network-in-europe/|title=New bishops for the Anglican Network in Europe|publisher=Anglican Ministries Inc.|date=9 October 2022|access-date=16 October 2022}} The church is administered by the Archdeaconry of Cardigan within the Diocese of St Davids.{{cite web|url= https://heritage.churchinwales.org.uk/church-heritage-record-st-michael-aberystwyth-3654#Home|title=St Michael, Aberystwyth|publisher=Church Heritage Cymru|access-date=17 October 2022}}
Architecture
The "large and prosperous church"{{sfn|Coflein 2006}} is built on a three-nave plan, with a vestry and a West tower. A planned spire was never built. The construction materials are York sandstone rubble and Westmoreland slate roofs.{{sfn|Coflein 2006}} The style is Gothic Revival, drawing on English Decorated Gothic. Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield, in their Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, consider it "old-fashioned", even at the time of its construction.{{sfn|Lloyd|Orbach|Scourfield|2006|p=402}}
The interior is faced with Bath limestone and decorated with banding in a contrasting red sandstone. It contains a chancel rood screen by W. D. Caröe dating from the early 20th century.{{sfn|Coflein 2006}} Carved panels in a memorial chapel at the front of the church commemorate the dead of Aberystwyth from the First and Second World Wars.{{cite web|url=https://ww1.wales/ceredigion-memorials/aberystwyth-ww1-war-memorial|title=Aberystwyth WWI War Memorial|publisher=West Wales War Memorials Project|access-date=16 October 2022}} The chapel was constructed in 1992 and involved the moving of the rood screen.{{sfn|Dyer|2021|p=155}}{{efn|The graveyard at St Michael's contains an unusual 19th century funerary headstone in the shape of a medicine bottle. It commemorates an Aberystwyth doctor, David Evans, who died in 1861.{{cite web|url=https://churchmonumentssociety.org/monument-of-the-month/bottling-up-the-dead-a-memorial-to-an-aberystwyth-doctor|title=Bottling up the dead: A memorial to an Aberystwyth doctor|publisher=Church Monuments Society|date=February 2019|access-date=16 October 2022}}}} The stained glass is mainly by Alfred Hemming,{{efn|Alfred Octavius Hemming worked with Clayton and Bell before establishing his own, highly successful, firm in 1883.{{cite web|url=https://www.buckschurches.uk/glass/craftsman.php?craftsmanid=106|title=Windows by Alfred O. Hemming|publisher=Buckinghamshire Churches|access-date=17 October 2022}}}} although the East window is the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. St Michael's is a Grade II listed building.
Gallery
St. Michael's Church - Aberystwyth.jpeg|A print c.1850 showing Haycock's early-19th century church in a Strawberry Hill Gothick style
Former vestry, St Michaels Church (geograph 4126226).jpg|The vestry, the only remnant of Haycock's church
St Michael's Church Aberystwyth - geograph.org.uk - 2104244.jpg|The church, with Laura Place behind
St Michael's Church - geograph.org.uk - 520927.jpg|A spire, intended to cap the tower, was never built
Notes
{{notes}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Sources
{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFCoflein_2014|CITEREFCoflein_2006}}
- {{cite book
|title=Aberystwyth: Understanding Urban Character
|url=https://cadw.gov.wales/sites/default/files/2019-05/Aberystwyth-%20Understanding%20Urban%20Character_0.pdf
|year=2013
|location=Cardiff
|publisher=Cadw
|isbn=978-1-857-60304-0
|ref={{harvid|Cadw 2013}}
}}
- {{cite book
|last1=Colvin |first1=Howard | author-link = Howard Colvin
|title=A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840
|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/611676709
|year=1978
|origyear=1956
|location=London
|publisher=John Murray
|isbn=978-0-719-53328-0
}}
- {{Cite DWB|id=s-POWE-NAN-1650 |title=Powell family of Nanteos|access-date=15 October 2022|ref={{harvid|Dictionary of Welsh Biography}}}}
- {{cite book
|last=Dyer |first=Matthew
|title=St Michael and All Angels' Church, Aberystwyth - Heritage Impact Assessment
|year=2021
|url=https://ceredigion-online.tascomi.com/planning/?fa=downloadDocument&id=39312&public_record_id=59485
|location=Bristol
|publisher=Austin, Smith, Lord
}}
- {{cite book
|last1=Lloyd |first1=Thomas |last2=Orbach |first2=Julian |last3=Scourfield |first3=Robert
|title=Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion
|series=The Buildings of Wales
|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/71164002
|year=2006
|publisher=Yale University Press
|location=New Haven, US and London
|isbn=978-0-300-10179-9
}}
- {{Coflein|num=110278|last=Malaws|first=B.A.|date=2006|desc=St Michael and All Angels' Church, Aberystwyth|access-date=16 October 2022|ref={{harvid|Coflein 2006}} }}
- {{Coflein|num=96222|date=2014|desc=St Michael's Church, Aberystwyth|access-date=16 October 2022|ref={{harvid|Coflein 2014}} }}
- {{Cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F152772|title=Church of St Michael, Aberystwyth|publisher=The National Archives|website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date=16 October 2022|ref={{harvid|The National Archives}}}}
- {{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/st-michael-aberystwyth|title=Aberystwyth, St Michael|publisher=National Churches Trust|access-date=16 October 2022|ref={{harvid|National Churches Trust}} }}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|St Michael's Church, Aberystwyth}}
- [https://www.archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/sched/cpr.astm.html Parochial records held at the Ceredigion County Archive]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aberystwyth, Church of Saint Michael and All Angels}}
Category:Grade II listed churches in Ceredigion
Church of Saint Michael and All Angels