St Michael's Church, Manafon, is in the small village of
Manafon,
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. It is an active
Anglican church in the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
of Llanfair Caereinion, Llanllugan and Manafon, the deanery of Mathrafal, the archdeaconry of Montgomery and the
diocese of St Asaph
The Diocese of Saint Asaph is a diocese of the Church in Wales in north-east Wales, named after Saint Asaph, its second bishop.
Geography
The Anglican Diocese of St Asaph in the north-east corner of Wales stretches from the borders of Chester i ...
. The church has been designated by
Cadw as a Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
There is documentary evidence relating to the church in 1254 and 1291 but otherwise nothing is known of its history until it was restored in 1859. In this restoration windows, including a five-light
dormer window
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...
on the south side, were replaced and the
vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
was added. A further restoration was carried out by the
Chester architect,
John Douglas in 1898. Plaster was removed from the walls and the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
floor was raised. Douglas replaced the seating, added a screen between the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and chancel, provided a new
pulpit,
lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. ...
, prayer desks, altar rails and table,
sedilia
In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...
and a
credence table
A credence table is a small side table in the sanctuary of a Christian church which is used in the celebration of the Eucharist. (Latin ''credens, -entis'', believer).
The credence table is usually placed near the wall on the epistle (south) sid ...
. He also designed the
lych gate
A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...
at the entrance to the churchyard. In 1992 repairs were undertaken to the interior of the west wall.
The poet
R. S. Thomas was rector of Manafon from 1942 to 1954.
Architecture
The church is built in stone with
slate roofs. Its plan consists of a nave and chancel in a single chamber with a south porch, a north vestry and a timber
belfry at the west end. On the end of the east
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
is a
Celtic cross finial. The east window is the original
Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...
window. The other windows date from the 1859 restoration. The belfry is painted white, it has
louver
A louver (American English) or louvre (British English; see spelling differences) is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain and direct sunshine. The angle of the sla ...
ed bell-openings on the north and south faces, and a pyramidal slate roof surmounted by a
weathercock
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
.
[
]
External features
In the churchyard is a sundial set on a wooden plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...
. The lychgate is at the main, southwest entrance. A slate hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
is supported by three tie-beams and has a central cross. The middle tie-beam is inscribed in Welsh on the church side and in English on the side of the road.[
]
See also
*
References
External links
Artwork at St Michael's Church, Manafon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manafon, St Michael's Church
Churches in Powys
Church in Wales church buildings
English Gothic architecture in Powys
Gothic architecture in Wales
John Douglas buildings
Grade II* listed churches in Powys