The Church of St Michael and All Angels

Cwm Head, Church Stretton, SY6 6PX

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

A combined church and schoolroom of 1846-9, designed by HJ Whitling of Shrewsbury in a neo-Norman style. The gig house or bier house and stable which stands to the south-east of the church is not of special architectural or historic interest and not included in the listing. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1436188
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-2016
List Entry Name:: The Church of St Michael and All Angels
Statutory Address:: Cwm Head, Church Stretton, SY6 6PX

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1436188
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-2016
List Entry Name:: The Church of St Michael and All Angels
Location Description:
Statutory Address 1:: Cwm Head, Church Stretton, SY6 6PX

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Cwm Head, Church Stretton, SY6 6PX

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Shropshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Wistanstow
National Grid Reference:: SO4232488699

Summary

Reasons for Designation

The church of St Michael and All Angles, Cwm Head, Shropshire, of 1846-9 by HJ Whitling of Shrewsbury, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural quality: although of modest size and built to a tight budget, the church has presence and exhibits careful design and thoughtful detailing. * Degree of survival: the original design survives, very largely intact, with later additions which are sympathetic and add to its interest.

History

The church was built between 1842 to 1844 to the designs of HJ Whitling of Shrewsbury. Whitling, who had lived in London and practiced in Cornwall and Devon, moved to Shropshire in 1840. He apparently misled the incumbent vicar at Cwm Head that his designs had been approved by the Incorporated Church Building Society, and by 1844 he had left the country 'having got into pecuniary difficulties' (see SOURCES, Colvin). Whitling's other church at Walmley, Shropshire, was also in the neo-Norman style.

Details

A combined church and schoolroom of 1846-9, designed by HJ Whitling of Shrewsbury in a neo-Norman style.

MATERIALS and PLAN: rubble sandstone with stone dressings and a slate roof. The building has a nave and apsidal chancel with a western porch, in line with the nave, and a bell tower attached to the north side of the chancel, which houses a vestry at ground level.

EXTERIOR: the nave has three bays divided by broad buttresses with quoins and angled offsets to their tops and a roll moulding half way up. Each arched lancet window is set in a relieving arch, and have diagonally tooled stonework with a carved border to the individual stone blocks. The eastern wall of the nave is marked by a coping which projects above the roof level and has a stone cross to its apex. The chancel has a stone roll moulding at sill level which circles follows the curve of the apse. Rafter ends re shown at eaves level and are carved around the apse. The western porch is gabled and has a round-arched portal with colonettes to either side with carved capitals. To either side is a single lancet window. The western wall of the nave has setback buttresses to each corner and a circular window to the gable with chamfered surround. The tower to the north of the chancel has a single lancet to its north face. It dies back via an offset to a more slender belfry stage, which has chamfers at the corners and two-light louvered openings to each side. The short, octagonal, stone spire is splay-footed to meet with the square body of the tower.

INTERIOR: the nave has widely-spaced, slender common rafters and a single rank of purlins. The trusses are formed of wall posts and arched braces which rise from moulded, wooden brackets to join the ties which support a king post with angle braces. The round chancel arch is plain and the chancel has a roll moulding at dado height. Pine pews in the nave appear to be C19, as does the altar table with its round-arched frieze. Oak choir stalls are of early-C20 date. Windows are clear glass, with the exception of the eastern window of 1864 by Done and Davies, showing the crucifixion.

The gig house or bier house and stable which stands to the south-east of the church is not of special architectural or historic interest and is not included in the listing..

Sources

Books and journals
Colvin, H, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1995), 1045
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (2006), 243

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

The listed building(s) is/are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.