Church of St. Michael is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 October 1987. Church. 2 related planning applications.
Church of St. Michael
- WRENN ID
- low-iron-birch
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- County Durham
- Constituency
- Bishop Auckland MP: Dr Sam Rushworth (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 October 1987
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St. Michael, Barningham, DL11 7DP
- OS grid reference
- NZ 085 104
- Coordinates
- 54.48931, -1.86983
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St. Michael is a parish church built in 1816 on a medieval site and remodeled in 1891 by Pritchett. It is constructed of rubble with buttresses made of tooled-and-margined stone, featuring ashlar dressings and a graduated Lakeland slate roof. The church has a four-bay preaching box with a narrower two-bay chancel and a west tower. The 1891 remodeling introduced arcades, a chancel arch, and internal divisions, creating a three-bay aisled nave and chancel flanked by vestries. The design reflects a Free 15th-century style.
The tower features stepped angle buttresses and boarded double doors on the south side, set within a double-chamfered pointed arch with a hoodmould. Above the doors is a cinquefoil-headed window and two-light belfry openings. A moulded string and corner gargoyles are located below the embattled parapet, which has a wrought-iron weather vane at the southwest corner. The body of the church has stepped buttresses at the angles and between the bays, with three-light windows in the nave. The chancel has two cinquefoil-headed lights on the south side, with the eastern light above a priest's door, and two-light windows on each side of the east bay. The five-light east window is set under a coped gable on moulded kneelers, topped with an eight-terminal cross fleury finial. On the north side, there are two boarded basement doors in pointed arches from 1816.
Inside, the church features plastered walls and hammer-beam roofs. The arcades have broad four-centred double-chamfered arches with hoodmoulds, supported by octagonal piers with moulded caps and tall moulded bases. The chancel arch is similar, with foliage hoodmould stops. The nave has a panelled dado, and there is a late 19th-century carved chancel screen, a panelled wood reredos, and a tiled sanctuary floor. A re-set 12th-century pillar piscina from the previous church is present, along with a 1791 wall tablet with an urn dedicated to Rev. Matthew More, and a 1839 wall tablet to William Harry Vane by Davies of Newcastle in the north vestry. An early medieval headstone cross is located in the sanctuary. The east window, installed in 1892, depicts Christ reigning and the Evangelists as a memorial to Harry Vane Milbank, and there is a brass candelabra in the chancel.
Local climate
Church of St. Michael receives an average of 950 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 73% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 53% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 54 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 2 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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- Cross Socket by South East Entrance of St Michael's Churchyard
- Church View
- The Hollies
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- Gateway, Approach Walls and South Wall to St Michael's Churchyard