Church Heritage Record 602086

Pre-1980 - 5-bay aisled nave with clerestory. North and south porches. Chancel with north vestry and south organ chamber.

Post-1980 – 2 western-most bays divided by glazed screen with kitchen to north and WCs to south.

Following reordering [approximate]: Nave 7m (23ft) wide x 10m (33ft) long, chancel 8m (26ft), aisles 3m (10ft) wide. West partition: 8m (26ft) long.

St Matthew's was built in 1855 by Joseph James with the work carried out by Samuel Briggs. A parsonage was built within 6 years and a church school in 1861 (replaced in the 1960s). The mission church of St Chad's closed in 1969 and the parish joined with St Matthew.

Smethwick has grown around the canal which is lined by industrial buildings north-east of the church. The area was home to the Soho Foundry of Boulton and Watt, which was established at the end of the 18th Century as the first purpose-built steam engine manufactory in the world. The success of the foundry increased the size of the local population. The ‘old church’ could no longer meet the capacity so Revd Edward Addenbrooke, vicar at that time, proposed a new church to contain 500 sittings. Land for the building was donated by Mr J W Unett. An ICBS grant was awarded.

In 1895 the Mitchell family, of the Mitchells and Butlers brewery, gave gifts to the church including the east window, font, reredos, pulpit, pews and chancel rails.

The last burial was in 1935. In the 1980s the west end was partitioned to create a meeting room, kitchen and bathrooms.

St Matthew’s is a pleasant surprise in an area that has clearly undergone a great deal of change since its construction. Trees partly screen the building from view on approach.

An impression of escalating height is created at the west end which is capped by a gabled bell-cote with two traceried openings slightly overhanging the plane of the west wall. This elevation is the highest point of the building and most dominant from the main approaches. Steeply pitched aisle roofs rise up to meet the steeply pitched nave roof on either side. Each aisle has a single-light window at the west end. A buttress climbs the centre of the west wall in several stages.

Gabled porches project to north and south of the church at the west end. The porches are of timber-frame construction, painted red with ogee cusping. The roofs consist of scissor trusses which come down to rest on stone bases. The doorways into the church have pointed moulded surrounds with headstops. The bays of the aisles are punctuated by two-light pointed windows with geometric tracery, with buttresses between each bay. Above in the clerestory three quatrefoils pierce each bay. At the east end the roofs of the chancel, the vestry to the north, and organ chamber to the south, are lower than the nave and aisles. A tall chimney tapers up from the north-east corner of the vestry. The vestry has two sets of two-light trefoil-headed windows in the north wall and another door.

The interior is accessed from the north-west porch which opens into the partitioned west-end. A kitchen fills the space of the north aisle, whilst toilets fill the south. The space at the west end between the kitchen and toilets, is partitioned from the nave by a glazed timber screen. It is floored in square carpet tiles and occupied by a mixture of furniture. Two of the piers from the arcade remain standing within the space. A suspended panel ceiling has been inserted and is cut away around key features such as the WWI memorial on the west wall. The space created above the insertion is not used in any way.

The remaining length of the nave has arcades to the north and south carried on circular piers with moulded capitals on octagonal bases. The nave is roofed by arch-braced collar roof trusses, with alternate trusses carried on angel corbels which drop down between the bays. The walls are painted, suffering from salts and damp in patches, and the floors are of level wood boards laid with carpet in the nave and aisles. Nave seating is provided by boarded pine pews.

Pointed doorways at the east ends of both aisles lead into the north-east vestry and south-east organ chamber respectively. Cast iron heating pipes are fixed to the aisle walls at a low level.

A high pointed chancel arch, with figurative headstops and ball flower decoration, separates the nave from the chancel. Responds inside the arch are of ornate foliate decoration with a vine motif. The chancel is raised by two marble steps. A temporary wooden dais on the nave side leads up to the chancel. A low alabaster wall, pierced with trefoil headed tracery, contributes to the division of space.

The roof structure is simpler than in the nave whilst elsewhere the decoration is enhanced. The chancel floor is laid in a decorative mosaic. The walls are wood panelled to dado height to north, east and south sides. Good wooden choir stalls are fixed to tiers to north and south. They are dated 1895 and have panelled fronts with decorative ogee carving and pierced quatrefoils. Behind those to the south is a pointed arch containing the organ. Headstops and angel heads are placed on the inside of the recess. The north and south walls contain two-light windows, that to the north is blocked by the abutting vestry/chapel to the north side. Both windows have head-stops and in the central spandrel a pelican feeding her young.

The sanctuary is raised by two marble steps and is paved in a geometric pattern of three different colours of marble. The altar is raised by a further step. Behind it an elaborately carved reredos which forms a set with the chancel floor, font and pulpit. Over it, a three-light east window provides the focus.