Roman Catholic Church of St Michael, Penn, City of Wolverhampton

Summary

A Roman Catholic Church built in 1967-8 to a design by Desmond Williams & Associates (with Anthony Ward as job architect), including artwork and furnishings by Robert Brumby, Sean Compton and Bronwen Gordon.

Description

MATERIALS: brown brick with a steel roof frame.

PLAN: a circular plan with a narthex and U-shaped tower attached to the north, a projecting chapel to the south-west and a rectangular sacristy attached to the south-east.

EXTERIOR: the walls of the tall, drum-shaped building are punctuated by projecting narrow buttresses framing slim, full height windows, with the internal recesses for shrines and confessionals fully expressed externally by further strips of brick. The irregular, flattened and channeled cone-shaped roof, clad in lead, has a reversed clerestory.

Behind the low, flat-roofed narthex to the north side of the church is a tall U-shaped open bell-tower. Attached to the wall above the entrance is a wrought bronze figure of St Michael by Sean Compton. The narthex has a later added flat-roofed walkway attaching it to the adjacent parish hall (not of special interest).

The plain, single storey sacristy attached to the south side of the church has a flat roof with three large windows to the rear.

INTERIOR: the dark brick internal walls to the nave are pierced by narrow, full height abstract stained glass windows by Bronwen Gordon in strong shades of blue, purple, yellow, red, orange and green. Recently heating panels have been introduced, fixed on a rail along the entire length of the internal wall. The cast reinforced concrete ceiling, resembling a large paper folded canopy, is suspended from the roof and has a deep circular light well.

The nave is divided into a fan-shaped seating area facing a raised, U-shaped chancel. Behind the stone table altar the reredos is formed by a large, full height abstract ceramic relief by Robert Brumby. A resin bronze and timber crucifix by Sean Compton is suspended above the altar. Immediately to the right of the altar is an open, circular shaped sunken sanctuary, with a stone font by Robert Brumby at the centre and an abstract bronze relief to the front. It is believed to be one of the earliest examples of the use of a completely open area for baptism set right next to the altar, as opposed to the tradition of a font near the narthex or one set within a separate baptistery (Proctor, 2014). A photograph of 1968 in the Catholic Building Review shows a different font, suggesting the current is not the original one. However Proctor (2014) states that Brumby confirmed that the current font was designed by him at the time. It is possible that when the 1968 photograph was taken that the font had not been completed yet. Attached to the wall above the adjacent, recessed Lady Chapel is a resin copper Madonna and Child by Sean Compton. A further three recesses along the walls house the confessionals with flush vertical timber doors.

Both the sacristy and narthex retain most of their original fittings and fixtures, most notably the bespoke timber built-in furniture. In the corner of the narthex a (later inserted) door opens to an open string concrete winder stair in the tower, allowing access to the suspending concrete gallery with further seats and raised organ.

History

The Church of St Michael was built in 1967-8 to designs by Desmond Williams & Associates, with Anthony Ward as job architect. Jenks Builders Ltd were the main contractors. The church is situated in a suburb of Wolverhampton characterised by early-C20 semi-detached housing. It was to be built set back from the road on a tight plot between an existing Roman Catholic Parish Hall of 1924 by George Bernard Cox of Harrison & Cox Architects of Birmingham, and a presbytery (1920s). The Ordnance Survey map of 1937 shows a small hall (also from the c1920s, now no longer there) to the south of Cox's Parish Hall, which is marked as the Church of St Michael, suggesting it was used as such until the completion of the new church.

The new, much larger, drum-shaped church was built to seat 600-650 (including the gallery) and to serve the post-Vatican II liturgy. Circular in plan, it had a freestanding altar with adjacent open sanctuary with font, a separate tabernacle, no fixed altar rails and fan-shaped seating in the nave, close to the celebrant. Art works and fittings were commissioned by the artists Sean Compton (crucifix and Madonna), Robert Brumby (reredos and font) and Bronwen Gordon (stained glass windows).

Desmond Williams & Associates designed a number of modern churches, including the Roman Catholic Church of St Augustine, Manchester, 1966-8 with a notable reredos by Robert Brumby (listed Grade II) and the Roman Catholic Church of St Dunstan, Birmingham, 1966-8 (listed Grade II). Desmond Williams worked with Arthur Facebrother before setting up his own practice in Manchester, which in c1970 amalgamated with W & J B Ellis to become Ellis Williams Partnership (still in practice today).

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic Church of St Michael, Coalway Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, of 1967-8 by Desmond Williams & Associates (with Anthony Ward as job architect), is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest: it is a good example of a modern Roman Catholic church of the late 1960s, displaying interesting architectural detailing and use of materials;

Plan-form and layout: its layout reflects the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms and is an early example in reflecting changes in the rite of baptism;

Internal fixtures and fittings: it contains a number of good quality bespoke fixtures and fittings and artwork with a good level of artistic interest;

Intactness: the church has survived unaltered and remarkably intact.

External Links

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