Church of Our Lady and St Michael, Abergavenny

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Church of Our Lady and St Michael, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
Abergavenny Baptist Church, October 2018 (2).jpg
Our Lady and St Michael
Church of Our Lady and St Michael, Abergavenny
Church of Our Lady and St Michael, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
51°49′32″N3°01′13″W / 51.8256°N 3.0204°W / 51.8256; -3.0204
Location Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
CountryWales
Denomination Roman Catholic
Website
History
Status Parish church
Founded1858
FounderJohn Baker Gabb
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Heritage designationGrade II*
Designated27 September 2001
Architect Benjamin Bucknall
Style Decorated Gothic
Groundbreaking1858
Completed1860
Administration
Archdiocese Cardiff-Menevia
Parish Abegavenny

The Church of Our Lady and St Michael in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, is a Roman Catholic parish church. A Grade II* listed building, it was built between 1858 and 1860 to a design by Benjamin Bucknall.

Contents

History and architecture

Abergavenny remained a Catholic stronghold in the years after the Reformation, and its first Catholic church built after the Reformation was on Frogmore Street. [1] This was replaced as the town's main Catholic church by Our Lady and St Michael's in 1860. [1] The construction of the church was funded by a local solicitor, John Baker Gabb, and the architect was Benjamin Bucknall. [2] Bucknall was engaged on the building of Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire, for another Catholic client, William Leigh, and, aged only 25, was seen as a coming man in Catholic architectural circles. Bucknall's intellectual and architectural influences were the work and ideas of Augustus Pugin – he converted to Catholicism in the year of Pugin's death – and the French Gothic Revival architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, with whom Bucknall was in regular correspondence. [3]

The church is constructed in Decorated Gothic style, with an accompanying Tudor Gothic presbytery. [2] Built of Old Red Sandstone, with Bath Stone dressings and slate roofs, [1] the church comprises a nave, North and South aisles and a chancel. [4] An intended "grand tower and spire" were never built. [2]

Internal features

Simon Jenkins describes the church as "a bold composition of church and presbytery." [5] The interior of the church is largely unchanged since its construction with all its original Victorian furniture and furnishings intact. [1] The presbytery is similarly unspoilt. [1] The church also has "an exceptionally fine collection of medieval and later vestments". [4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cadw. "Church of Our Lady and St Michael R C, including attached Presbytery (No. 10), Abergavenny (Grade II*) (2467)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Newman 2000, p. 98-9.
  3. ↑ "Benjamin Bucknall". 18 September 2008. Archived from the original on 7 January 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Our Lady and St Michael's Catholic Church, Pen-y-Pound Road, Abergavenny (12866)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. ↑ Jenkins 2008, p. 182.

References

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