The Cathedral of Maesteg

That's what the locals call St. Michael's Church, Maesteg. Of course, that only means that it is the most impressive Anglican Church in Maesteg, but there you go. The High Victorian church is built of local stone, and its tower ensures that it is a very real presence in the town. It also shows something of the rivalry between 'Church' and 'Chapel'
This is St. David's, the original Parish Church in Maesteg. Small, quite typical for the area, and not at all exciting. Although located in the centre of town, by the marketplace, it is a low-built structure that is really quite humble. With all these impressive chapels around (though most of the chapels around when St. Michael's was built have since been replaced by larger and even more impressive buildings), it says of the Church of Wales (as it was then), "we're really rather irrelevant." So what's a Church to do? Well, with the town growing, what better time to build a new Church, really large and impressive, to out-do the Nonconformists! And here it is...

The Church of St. Michael and all Angels! It is decidedly an Anglican Church, not a chapel, and it is built in the Early English style, with lancet windows. While the Decorated was more popular, the simplicity of the Early English often makes buildings in this style more impressive. Like most Victorian churches in the Early English style, St. Michael's impresses by its simplicity of form, and its massiveness.

The west front of the Church contains the main entrance, with five lancets of equal size lighting the west end of the building. Above them is a statue of St. Michael. The Early English is also the style of St. David's, so St. Michael's suggests a sense historic continuity.

When I visited the Church was being decorated for a wedding, so I was able to get inside. The internal dimensions are impressive, with a large nave and separate choir and chancel arches (most Anglican churches have just a chancel arch). As the Latin over the chancel arch, and the presence of a high altar indicates, St. Michael's is Anglo-Catholic, it even has a set of modern wood-sculpted stations of the cross around the walls of the nave.

There are some other Maesteg pictures that may come if I feel they are worth while.

Some Chapels in Maesteg

Today's post is a series of pictures of nonconformist chapels from the town of Maesteg, Bridgend County. This is a small valley town, yet these are not all the Churches in Maesteg (there are also two Anglican Churches and a Roman Catholic Church, plus other chapels). First up is Zion English Baptist Chapel, built in 1884, a very simple stone building with no real decoration on the facade.

This is Central Church, Maesteg, occupied by Baptists, Methodists and URC. It was built in 1847 as Bethel English Baptist Church, and enlarged in 1859. It was renovated in 1947.

Peniel Evangelical Church, Maesteg, has 'Tabernacle' written on the building. An old-fashioned Welsh Baptist Chapel, with the date 1856 on the facade. I have met the pastor of this church, and he seems a good sort.

Maesteg seems to have been a centre of the Welsh Independents. This is Carmel Chapel, one of the few Welsh Independent Chapels in Maesteg still open. It has a rather nice early 20th century facade.

And this is Canaan Independent Chapel, built in 1903. The architecture is still pretty typical.

Tabor Calvinistic Methodist Church has closed and been converted into flats. It was built in 1907, no doubt in part to contain the converts from the Welsh Revival. In the latest style as well.

This is the Victorian Zoar Independent Chapel, now owned by a funeral director. Zoar means 'small', but this chapel is anything but!

This was Bethlehem Calvinstic Methodist Chapel. The Calvinistic Methodists were effectively the alternative Establishment in Wales, yet not one CM Chapel remains open in Masteg! And finally we have the gem of Maesteg, Bethania Independent Chapel, designed by local architect William Beddoe Rees and built in 1908. The last hurrah of the Nonconformists, the building seems today to be far too big.

These chapels are the results of revival. They are mostly closed now, and only revival can re-open them and fill them.