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St Michael and All Angels' Church, Main Street, Pembroke

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NPRN300438
Map ReferenceSM90SE
Grid ReferenceSM9883701381
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPembrokeshire
Old CountyPembrokeshire
CommunityPembroke
Type Of SiteCHURCH
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Medieval Anglican parish church, rebuilt in 1831 by Thomas Rowlands of Haverfordwest and altered in 1887 by EH Lingen Barker. Of the plain cruciform church with stunted crossing tower described by Fenton, only the vaulted N chapel (now vestry) remains, and during the 1830 works the tower and one side wall fell. The 1831 church had a battlemented nave, of which only part of the N wall followed the original, and the tower was rebuilt. The nave had timber windows and a porch in the left bay of the south aisle. On S side of tower was another battlemented porch between battlemented buttresses. There was also a W gallery, box pews and a three-decker pulpit just W of the tower. The work cost £2,644. The 1887 rebuilding cost £2,130 and comprised a new double roof carried on an arcade in the middle of the broad nave, a chancel arch in the new N nave, windows, porches, and fittings, and carved work by Herridge of Cardiff. Organ was added in 1888, the reredos in 1932 by Ellery Anderson. Tower restorations were undertaken in 1927 by J. Coates Carter and again in 1990s.

Church built of rubble stone, with rendered N and W walls and slate roofs with coped gables. Ther is a parallel roofed nave and S aisle, a NE vestry and a SE tower. The S wall has 1887 Bath stone windows in earlier openings, all with bicolour voussoirs, and a broad, low buttresses clasping the SW angle. The porch of 1887 has a coped gable, a pointed arch entry and cinquefoil window on each side wall, and an inner door. At right end, by tower, is a similar, narrower 1887 porch which replaces a window.

The twin-gabled W end is rendered, with three buttresses and two 1887, two-light windows. The N wall is also rendered with a NW buttress, five 2-light, 1887 windows and a low arched doorway to the boiler room with an eaves chimney above. Parallel to the chancel is the rendered medieval vestry to left. The W gable wall of this has a truncated chimney, while the N side has a rendered buttress to the left. The E end has 1887, 2-light window and a pointed door. The E wall of the chancel is rendered, and has two-step buttresses and a 1887, 3-light window.

The tower has a rendered stage, under a tall top stage of 1831 in squared grey limestone. The top stage has octagonal corner shafts, a coved cornice carried around shafts and an embattled parapet. There are large, 3-light, pointed bell-lights with inserted Bath stone Gothic tracery.

On S side is a roofless porch of 1831 with the scar of a pointed arch against the base of tower within. It has two massive grey stone buttress piers with plain square tops, a low parapet and a Tudor-arched entry in a raised surround. Within, marks of the former lean-to roof and, on S side of tower, raised plaster to a pointed profile with raised plaster roundel are visible, together with a blocked Tudor-arched door. On the left is a narrow door to a former stair. The E side of tower has buttresses and big window with C20 uPVC glazing.

Main entry is the pointed S door with double baize doors. The interior is plastered except at W, where stonework reveals the blocked 1831 openings. There is a four-bay arcade of 1887 with Bath stone pointed arches with hoodmoulds and carved stops, on three round columns with moulded caps and bases. The roofs have arch-braced scissor trusses on carved corbels. There is an inserted wall to the nave with a pointed chancel arch of 1887, double chamfered with a hoodmould, the inner chamfer on corbelled shafts with ornate vine and wheat capitals.

The S aisle has an organ at E end, behind which is a plain pointed arch into tower, now a vestry with high flat ceiling. This has the outline of blocked Tudor-arched S door, and a pointed N recess, also probably a blocked door. The chancel has a 1887 boarded roof with transverse ribs, a pointed S arch similar to the chancel arch, a pointed piscina close to the alter and a 1887 pointed door to vestry.

The aisles are stone flagged, with early C19 stone paving with slate diamonds at E end of nave. There are 1887 tiles in chancel. The
N vestry has a pointed medieval stone vault, the N wall has a blocked door with a segmental-arched head, there is a blocked pointed door to S, and a further blocked door of 1887 on the right side of E wall. A Bath stone piscina with gadrooned bowl in the NE corner is possibly early C18. C19 fireplace on W wall.
(Source; Cadw listing database) S Fielding RCAHMW 15/11/2006