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Church History information for Smethwick St Michael & All Angels and places above it in the hierarchy

Smethwick St Michael & All Angels

St Michael & All Angels was originally a mission church to Holy Trinity formed in 1886 in a converted warehouse in Brook Street.
The present church was built in 1891 in Crockett's Lane and is a structure of red brick, in the Early English style, designed by AE Street of London, consisting of a chancel, north transept, aisled and clerestoried nave and west baptistry. A lady chapel on the south side of the chancel was added in 1933.
St John's mission church to St Michael was opened in a disused factory in 1894 in Slough Lane, and was replaced in 1910 by St John the Evangelist mission room in Foundry lane which continued in use until 1967.

Smethwick

Church of England History
For Anglican church history see individual Parishes

Nonconformist Church History
The Wesleyan Methodist's first chapel in Smethwick was at the French Walls, replaced by a new chapel in Rabone Lane in 1826. This in turn was replaced by a chapel in New Street built in the Classical style to designs of GB Nichols of West Bromwich in 1855-6. The New Street chapel was closed in1931, being replaced by the Akrill Memorial Chapel in the Uplands area. The Halford Lane Wesleyan chapel was operating in Brasshouse Lane by 1866, it was was replaced by a new building in 1882 and closed in 1970. A mission chapel was built in Slough Lane in 1889 and was used until 1939.
The New Connexion Methodist Mount Zion Chapel was built in Baldwin Street in 1865, replaced by a new building on the same site in 1885. It became a United Methodist chapel in 1907 and closed in 1957.
The Primitive Methodist Chapel in Rolfe Street, built in 1849, replaced an earlier building in the same street. This in turn was replaced by a larger building, adjoining the old one, in 1873. It was sold in 1886 and a new chapel built in Regent Street. A Primitive Methodist Chapel built in Corser Street in 1878 became a Methodist church from 1932 until 1955. The Primitive Methodist Chapel in Middlemore Road, built in 1901, was closed in 1965.
Cross Street Baptist Chapel was built in 1842 but closed in 1853 due to declining attendence. A new chapel was built in Cross Street in 1869 and replaced by a larger building in the Baroque style in Regent Street in 1879.

The Roman Catholic church in Smethwick was founded by members of the Oratory in Hagley Road. Services were held in the school, in Watt Street from 1863. The church of St Philip Neri, in Messenger Road, was built over a long period, the nave was opened in 1893 but the church was not completed until 1908.

Staffordshire

  • "The Old Parish Churches of Staffordshire" by Mike Salter, published by Folly Publications, 1996, ISBN 1-871731-25-8 (2nd Ed) contains descriptions, photographs and plans of many of the old parish churches of the county.
  • "Staffordshire Incumbents and Parochial Records, 1530-1680" by Walter Landor, was published by William Salt Archaeological Society, in "Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Volume 1915."
  • "The Registrations of Dissenting Chapels and Meeting Houses in Staffordshire, 1689-1852" by Barbara Donaldson, was published by The Staffordshire Record Society, in "Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 4th Series, Volume III, 1960."
  • Histories of individual churches may be found on the individual parish pages.
  • Staffordshire Archive Services' Staffordshire Past Track pages include a selection of old photographs, plans and drawings of selected churches in the county.
  • A Listing of the Church Photographs & Images on GENUKI Staffordshire
  • JWB Tomlinson's unpublished PhD Thesis entitled "From Parson to Professional: The Changing Ministry of the Anglican Clergy in Staffordshire, 1830-1960"  examines in great detail the transformation of the parish ministry of the clergy of the Church of England from the gradual abandonment of the parson model to the adoption of the professional model using Staffordshire parishes as a case study.

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