St Michael, Caerwys
St Michael, Caerwys
St Michael's is a Grade II* Church in Wales parish church on Pen y Cefn Road, Caerwys, Flintshire, in the Diocese of St Asaph. Cadw lists a substantial medieval church first mentioned in 1244, with late thirteenth-century nave and tower from about the time Caerwys received borough status in 1290.
- Location
- Caerwys, Flintshire
- Country
- Wales
- County
- Flintshire
- City / town
- Caerwys
- Address
- Pen y Cefn Road, Caerwys, Flintshire, CH7 5PZ
- Postcode
- CH7 5PZ
- Built
- Late C13 nave and tower; C14 chancel; N aisle later, roof late C15 or C16
- Architect
- W H Spaull of Oswestry (1894-5 restoration)
- Denomination
- Church in Wales
- Dedication
- Michael
- Diocese
- St Asaph
- Parish
- Caerwys
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Perpendicular and Tudor-Gothic
- Materials
- Rubble-stone walls with yellow freestone dressings; slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SJ 127 728
- Opening hours
- Open daily 9.30am to 4pm.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access throughout
Overview
Cadw records the present chancel as fourteenth-century. The north aisle is later and was modified in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century when its roof was constructed. The tower was heightened probably in 1687 and repaired in 1769. Restoration in 1894–95 by W. H. Spaull of Oswestry replaced wooden piers to the north aisle arcade with the present two-bay chancel arcade, retaining a single arch between nave and north aisle. The west porch and south-west vestry are both dated 1904.
The church is of rubble-stone walls with yellow freestone dressings and slate roofs, mainly Perpendicular and Tudor-Gothic. The four-stage unbuttressed tower is battered at the base. Interior fittings include a fourteenth-century cinquefoiled tomb recess with a broken female effigy of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, a late medieval north-aisle roof, an octagonal font inscribed 1661, and stained glass by Joseph Bell and Son, Henry Dearle of Morris and Co, and Celtic Studios. Cadw lists the church at Grade II* for medieval roofs and tomb recess and for the fine post-medieval tower.