Summary
A parish church designed by John Harold Gibbons of John Gibbons and Son, and built in stages 1909-1938, of red sandstone in Gothic style with Arts and Crafts influences, with a brick-clad, concrete-framed west end and tower clad in brick of 1960 by George Gaze Pace.
Reasons for Designation
The Church of St Michael and All Angels, Bramhall, a parish church of 1909 by JH Gibbons, with additions of 1960 by GG Pace, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is an unusually successful integration of post-war architecture with an earlier, more traditional church;
* the early-C20 phase displays good detailing and craftsmanship using good-quality materials, and is of considerable visual interest for a small suburban parish church;
* it is an early example of a church by John Harold Gibbons, illustrating elements found in his later modernised interpretation of Gothic architecture, particularly the arcade without capitals and stylised carvings;
* its post-war phase of 1960 comprises a strikingly bold west end typifying the mature style of the pre-eminent post-war church architect George G Pace, with a sophisticated rhythm of window openings belying their apparently random distribution;
* it retains good-quality fixtures from both phases mostly as designed, in particular the timber carvings throughout (many gilded) and stained glass, and the new organ loft and timber light fittings of the 1960s.
History
St Michael and All Angels church, Bramhall, was begun in 1909 and opened, dedicated and consecrated in 1910, after John Gibbons and Son won the design competition in 1907. The suburb of Bramhall was developed speculatively after 1877 on land formerly belonging to the Davenport family of Bramall Hall. With services no longer being held at Bramall Hall’s chapel after the Davenport family left, a new ‘mission’ church was built in 1890. This served as the parish hall after the new church was opened.
The nave and south aisle of the new church were built first. The stained-glass windows were mostly funded as memorials after the First World War and in the 1930s, by the Preston family. The north-west vestry was added in 1929 and the north aisle in 1938. The lady chapel in the north aisle was added as a memorial to a former benefactor of the church in 1955.
The original design for the church included a tower at the east end of the south aisle. In the late 1950s architect George G Pace was engaged to produce an alternative design to complete the church. This was begun in 1960 and completed in 1963. It comprised a large west tower to flood the interior with light, flanked by entrance lobbies. A new organ loft was also built in the chancel, allowing expansion of the choir stalls, and new pendant light fittings were installed (as well as a presence lamp that was discovered by Pace in a York antiques shop). The reredos behind the high altar was also painted and gilded, as probably originally intended. Two small panels of C16 stained glass, which had been rescued by diplomats during the Spanish Civil War, were also installed in the north tower lobby, having been donated by a member of the congregation.
A church hall (excluded from the listing) was built in the early 1970s and opened in 1973, connected to the north-west lobby of the church. Around the year 2000, the front row of chancel choir stalls was moved to the tower, and in 2009 the opening in the low chancel wall was widened and the oldest choir stalls were re-sited with the original matching clergy stalls against the side walls of the chancel. At the same time the carved timber bosses over the sanctuary and the instruments of the carved angels at the tops of the chancel walls were gilded. The tower ceiling was also painted pink, in accordance with the architect’s original specification.
John Harold Gibbons (1878–1957) was an ecclesiastical architect working in the Gothic revival tradition, best known for a series of inter-war churches in London suburbs; his mature work varied between a stripped, modelled interpretation of Gothic and a round-arched style derived from early Christian and Romanesque models. His father, John Gibbons (1850 to 1935) worked in Manchester’s city surveyor’s department before going into architectural practice in 1898. From 1906 father and son formed a partnership (dissolved in 1914), but with John junior moving and also establishing his own practice in London in 1907. The partnership received a number of ecclesiastical commissions, mostly for repairs and additions to existing churches. This was an unusual commission for a new church.
George Gaze Pace (1915 to 1975) is widely considered to be the leading English ecclesiastical architect of the second half of the C20 and is well known for developing a new modern style of ecclesiastical architecture rooted in traditional forms but without overt historicism, notably in his restoration work at Llandaff Cathedral and also in designing a number of churches in the north of England.
Details
A parish church of 1909 by John Harold Gibbons of John Gibbons and Son, with additions of 1960 by George Gaze Pace.
MATERIALS: red Cheshire sandstone, red Rosemary clay tile roof, concrete tower clad in brick with timber bellcote, and copper roofs to the tower lobbies.
PLAN: aligned east-west with south-transept organ loft, north and south aisles, west tower with flanking lobbies, and north-east vestry and sacristy. The later attached hall at the north-west corner is excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR: built in Gothic style with Arts and Crafts detailing, and random-coursed squared walling, much of it tooled. The east end is gabled with two large, twice-weathered buttresses flanking the east window, and a low, canted plinth. The east window is of five lights with decorated tracery; above is a small, two-light mullioned window with cusped arches. The chancel is a simple continuation of the nave, with two south lancets. To the south wall it has a plinth of multiple canted courses, continuing that of the organ loft, which was to be the base of the tower. The organ loft has weathered, angle buttresses, a two-light traceried window and an entrance that shares its flat lintel with a two-light mullioned side window. The south buttress has a foundation stone, inscribed in good-quality Gothic lettering (some now badly weathered): TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ THIS STONE WAS LAID BY THE/ REV CANON W.SYMONDS MA/ RECTOR OF STOCKPORT ON/ JULY 10TH 1909. The east face of this stone is also carved with a floriated octofoil cross in low relief. The north wall of the chancel is largely obscured by the new lean-to organ loft by Pace, and the flat-roofed vestry and sacristy, which has mullioned windows of three lights (east end) and four and three lights (north side).
The north aisle is gabled at the east end with an expressed chimney breast, and has a flat-roofed north porch at the east end, with a shouldered entrance. Above the porch is a three-light mullioned window with tracery and a hoodmould. To the right, beyond the basement steps, is a traceried, two-light pointed-arched window with hoodmould. The western bay is flanked by low, weathered buttresses, and has a pair of identical windows. The north wall of the north tower-lobby is lower and of brick, in English bond, with five tall lancets. At its west end it is obscured by the 1970s hall (which is not included in the listing).
The south aisle is of three regular bays with twice-weathered buttresses between, each with a three-light, pointed-arched window with a hoodmould, all with different tracery. To the west, the brick south lobby has five lancets like its northern counterpart, and continues to a wide doorway with joggled-voussoir stone lintel. This wall has a foundation stone with an incised stylised floriated cross with leaf decoration, and the date MCM/ LX followed by another stylised leaf. This stone rests on two sandstone blocks, which are herringbone-tooled like those of the church walls.
The west ends of the tower lobbies each have another five lancets, while the tower wall is blind at low level. The tower is splayed to the western angles, with multi-course broaches similar to the plinths of the organ loft buttresses. The west wall has a tall five-light window with pointed heads and stone sill, and continuous arch-headed transom to the lower and third stages, and transoms to the second and fourth stages of only the outer and centre lights. The north wall has a similar two-light window with four transoms to each light, but staggered with only the third-stage transom shared; to the right is a single light window with five transoms, all but one of which are aligned with one of the transoms in the pair to the left. The south wall has another five-light window, with continuous lower-and-third-stage transoms, and staggered transoms elsewhere, two of which are not aligned with any other. The tower is flat-roofed with a tall parapet and prominent concrete spitters to the north and east, but is crowned with a timber bellcote, gabled to the east and west.
INTERIOR: the interior is little-altered, retaining much of its original decoration and furnishings. The east window is of the Ascension, by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The chancel roof is barrel-vaulted and wood panelled, with ornate carved junction-bosses; the sanctuary also has elaborate gilded centre-carvings to the panels. The chancel wall-tops have 12 angels with gilded musical instruments or instruments of Christ’s Passion. The carved and gilded reredos by RG Boulton of Cheltenham has statues of St Michael and St George on either side above symbols of the Passion. The south wall has a piscina and sedilia, with stained glass to the windows above depicting the Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan. The north wall has the Pace organ loft. The clergy stalls are decorated with naturalistic carvings including an oak and acorn motif. The pulpit and reading desk are also in carved wood. The chancel and sanctuary are tiled in black and white marble squares, and a low stone wall divides the chancel from the nave; this has been carved with a replica of the original foundation stone inscription. The wooden pendant light fittings are by Pace, and the silver-plated C17 presence lamp was added by him. The sacristy and vestry also retain their parquet flooring, cupboards, folding doors and stone washbasin.
The nave has arcades of three arches which die into the octagonal piers, without capitals. The nave and aisles each have similar barrel-vaulted, panelled ceilings, with carved bosses – all with Pace light fitttings. The aisles are lined with linenfold panelling, and in the Lady Chapel this is topped with symbols of the four evangelists. The parquet flooring is oak along the aisle and nave passages but pine in the seating areas, which never had pews. The south aisle has three windows by Heaton, Butler and Bayne depicting St Michael slaying the dragon, the resurrection, and the shepherds listening to the angels proclaiming peace. The north aisle windows of 1936 show Christ in the temple, the nativity and ‘suffer little children to come unto me’, with the three northern missionaries, SS Cuthbert, Aidan and Chad above the north entrance.
The stone-floored tower has an exposed concrete frame, with a striking parabolic concrete arch between it and the original nave, and a pink-painted ceiling reached by an unconcealed iron ladder. The original marble font now stands here.
The south aisle has memorial boards for the First and Second World Wars. The north tower lobby has two small panels of C16 Spanish stained glass, and doors of limed oak which are by Pace.
The 1970s church hall attached at the north-west corner is not included in the listing.
