Patrick Comerford
In recent days, I have been visiting a number of churches in the Rugeley area that I first got to know when I was about 19 or 20. They include Saint Michael’s Church in Brereton; the old and new Saint Augustine’s Church, the ruins of the early mediaeval parish church, now known as the ‘Old Chancel’, and the early 19th century church across the street that replaced it in the 1820s; Saint Joseph and Saint Etheldreda Church, Rugeley; and Hawkesyard Hall and Spode House in Armitage, where the Dominicans once had a priory.
Brereton in the Cannock Chase district in Staffordshire, is 1½ miles south-east of Rugeley, half way between Lichfield and Stafford, and with a population of about 6,000.
Brereton was known in 1279 known as Breredon, the ‘hill where the briars grow’. It was once part of a wider mining community, with several mines, and in the 19th century the extensive collieries belonged to two local magnates, Earl Talbot and the Marquis of Anglesey. Today, all the mines are closed.
Until the mid-19th century, Brereton and Rugeley formed one parish, with Brereton as a chapelry in the parish of Rugeley. Later, Brereton formed a civil parish in its own right from 1894 until 1934, when the parish was abolished and merged with Rugeley. A new civil parish was formed in 1988 and was renamed Brereton and Ravenhill.
I first visited Saint Michael’s Church, the Church of England parish church in Brereton in the early 1970s. It is a listed building and stands on an elevated site above the Main Road, surrounded by a 2.5 acre landscaped churchyard. Brereton Methodist Church, built in 1809, was the first church building in Brereton, and Saint Michael’s Church followed in 1837.
Saint Michael’s Church was built on land and using stone given by Charles Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot (1777-1849), 2nd Earl Talbot from 1793, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1817-1821, and father of Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot (1803-1868), later 3rd Earl Talbot and 18th Earl of Shrewsbury.
Elizabeth and Harriet Sneyd of Brereton Hall were among the principal contributors to building Saint Michael’s Church. They also built Brereton’s first school, Saint Michael’s School.
Saint Michael’s was designed in the Early English Gothic style by a local Staffordshire architect, the prolific Staffordshire architect James Trubshaw (1777-1853) of Little Haywood, father-in-law of the Lichfield architect Thomas Johnson (1794-1865). Saint Michael’s Church was opened in 1837, and Brereton became a district chapelry in 1843.
As the population of Brereton expanded, major extensions and alterations to the church were carried out later in the 19th century under the Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), the most prolific Gothic Revival architect of the 19th century. The church enlargement by Scott in 1878 was one of his last works carried out in the year he died.
These alterations were initiated by the Revd Edward Samson (1845-1921) when he was the Vicar of Brereton (1874-1894), often at his own expense. Samson, who had an artificial leg, came from a family of wealthy London barristers. He had been the curate of Rugeley (1870-1873) before becoming the Vicar of Brereton. Samson retired due to ill health and moved to Armitage Lodge, and became a church warden of Saint John’s, Armitage. When his health recovered, Sansom returned to ministry, and in 1903 he was appointed Rector of Armitage and Vicar of Pipe Ridware.
Saint Michael’s Church is built in grey sandstone with tile roofs, and consists of a nave with a west porch, north and south transepts towards the west end, aisles to the east of them, a chancel with a south-west vestry and a north-west steeple. The steeple has a tower that becomes octagonal towards the top and it is surmounted by a spire. The windows are lancets.
Scott extended the transepts eastwards, giving the church, in effect, north and south aisles each of three bays. He also formed the chancel by raising the floor level at the east end of the former nave and surrounding it with low stone screens. The sedilia and the treatment of the chancel window internally are part of this scheme.
The font, which has an arcaded bowl on a base of coloured marble on a marble stem with detached corner shafts, is in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878), Bishop of Lichfield (1868-1878).
The painted wooden reredos depicting the crucifixion and angels is by Burlison & Grylls and dates from 1883. The stained glass in the church is by Ward & Hughes and Burlison & Grylls.
The upper part of the tower and spire of Saint Michael’s was remodelled in 1887 by Scott’s son, John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913), with the octagonal tower raised to accommodate a clock and four extra bells. The clock was added to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.
The nave west doorway is dated 1837 in the tympanum, and the south-west vestry is dated 1894.
The richly detailed Gothic oak pulpit was given in 1895 by the Revd Edward Samson. The north and south walls of the chancel have sgraffito work from 1897 by Heywood Sumner, and originally continued across the east wall.
The east end of the north aisle was rearranged as the Lady Chapel in 1927-1928.
The churchyard was extended in 1876 and 1894, and the roadside lychgate was added to 1884. The stone and brick walls on Main Road and the lychgate were moved back from their original positions during road widening in 1971. The church hall was built by Wood, Goldstraw & Yorath in 1977, and it is linked to the vestry by covered walkway.
Saint Michael’s churchyard remains the one significant area of landscaped green open space in Brereton.
Across the road from the church, the Revd Edward Samson built and endowed four almshouses the Edward Samson Cottage Homes, in 1902. They form a single-storey range, each house having a projecting gabled bay window.
The separate church parishes of Rugeley and Brereton officially became the Parish of Brereton and Rugeley on 1 June 2006, and the union was marked by a day of celebrations on 19 November 2006.
• The Revd Cath Leighton is the Team Rector of the Benefice of Brereton and Rugeley and Armitage with Handsacre, with six churches. Sunday services are held in Saint Michael’s Church, Brereton, at 9:45 am on the second, fourth and fifth Sundays. On the first Sunday of the month, a benefice service is held in one of the churches around the benefice.
