History
Church of St. Michael in Llanmihangel was founded in the thirteenth century, the first written mention of it comes from 1254. In the fifteenth century, a tower on the west side was added. In the 19th century, the church underwent a Victorian renovation, and in 1909, from the north, a smaller communication turret was added next to the tower.
Architecture
At the end of the Middle Ages, the church consisted of a rectangular nave and a short, four-sided chancel on the eastern side. The west side was closed by a 15th-century tower with a prominent parapet set on corbels, probably only later covered with a hip roof. The southern entrance portal to the nave was originally not covered with any annex. The windows illuminating the nave and chancel in the 13th and 14th centuries had the form of narrow openings topped with trefoils, enlarged in the late Gothic style in the 15th century. As usual, the most magnificent form had the eastern window illuminating the altar, with pointed jamb filled with elaborate tracery.
Current state
The church has preserved the medieval walls of the nave, presbytery and tower, but it did not avoid transformations, the most striking of which was the addition of an early modern porch and stair turret. Inside the church, the 15th-century oak roof truss, Romanesque piscina in the southern wall of the chancel and the 13th-century baptismal font in the nave have been preserved. In the church cemetery there is the base of the medieval cross, and behind the western end of the cemetery there is medieval well of St. Anne with stairs leading to the water and a carved figure of a woman.
bibliography:
Salter M., The old parish churches of Gwent, Glamorgan & Gower, Malvern 2002.
Website britainexpress.com, Llanmihangel, St Michael Church.
Website waymarking.com, St Michael’s – Medieval Church – Llanmihangel, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.