Church Of St Michael

CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL

This Grade I listed church stands on the northern outskirts of Alnwick, situated on a high bluff overlooking the River Aln. It is built of roughly coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs, and stone perpendicular tracery windows with leaded and stained glass.

The building comprises a parallelogram plan with a five-bay nave, a slightly taller three-bay chancel, wide aisles and chapels, a three-stage tower and south porch at the south-west end, a projecting turret at the south-east end, and vestries with a north porch appended to the north aisle.

The long embattled south aisle is lit by three-light perpendicular windows separated by pinnacled buttresses. A simple priest's door leads into the south chapel, adjacent to which rises a projecting polygonal turret with corbelled-out top and chamber above the chancel roof. The upper levels of this turret carry embrasures, suggesting a defensive function. The west end features a wide gabled porch with carved stone cross and double wooden doors with hood mould and carved stops. The embattled tower has angle buttresses with twelve set-offs ending in pinnacles; the ground floor has a segmental-headed window with perpendicular tracery, the second stage has paired narrow openings, and the third stage has a perpendicular slatted window. The east end has three perpendicular windows separated by stepped buttresses surmounted by pinnacles—the south aisle window has five lights and the north aisle window has four lights, both with complex tracery. The east end of the chancel with its five-light window dates from the 19th century restoration. The west end has a three-light window (a 19th century replacement for a decorated original) and a small trefoil lancet window of around 1300, incorporated from a predecessor church and indicating a formerly narrower nave.

The interior aisles have double chamfered arches. The north arcade has hexagonal piers with much moulded caps and paired fluted faces, largely dating from the 19th century when the old arcade was removed to fit galleries. The south arcade has plain octagonal piers and carved corbel heads at the rear, slightly altered when the tower was built, necessitating a large buttress projecting into the nave. The chancel arch is also 19th century but features re-sited Norman diaper work above. The chancel arcades are higher and more delicate, with octagonal piers containing eight keeled shafts within cusped-head panels and angels at the arcade springing level; the capitals are richly carved with stylized foliage of varying types. The Hotspur capital on the north carries the crescent and fetterlocks of the Earl of Northumberland. The nave roof is original with contemporary bosses and arch-braced trusses of varying detail, including two with cusping. All woodwork within the church, including benches and the upper part of the stone pulpit, dates from the 19th century. Of particular note are two parclose screens and twenty-two choir stalls decorated with carved foliage, installed in 1863 and carved by local craftsmen. In the south-east corner of the chancel, a simple segmental-headed doorway with a studded oak door gives access to an unworn stone spiral staircase (formerly higher) and an adjacent chamber (formerly larger), interpreted as a priest's room and lookout. At the south-west corner of the nave, a rectangular chamfered entrance with a wooden boarded door provides access to the tower; above this door is a carving of a pair of shears with a lock above, possibly a re-used grave cover. The lowest chamber of the tower incorporates grotesque carvings on its supporting piers' ceiling, and a worn stone spiral stair gives access to a first floor ringing room and then to the third stage belfry. Three bells remain in situ with their stocks and wheels; the two smallest are thought to be medieval whilst the larger bell was recast in 1764.

The modernist font of blue Kilkenny limestone is by David Edwick of Hexham. The stained glass, with the exception of 15th century fragments including a depiction of a pelican in the north aisle west window, dates from the 19th century and contains what Pevsner describes as "an uncommonly complete and enlightening survey of 19th century glass". It includes work by renowned practitioners including Clayton & Bell, Lavers & Barraud, James Powell and Ward & Hughes.

Sculptures and monuments include late 15th century statues of Henry VI and a martyr saint, early to mid 14th century effigies of a knight (with carved weeper in the form of a monk) and lady under projecting crocketed canopies, and a later 14th century effigy of a clerk. Various tablets include one of 1737 with an etched portrait on a bronze roundel by T King of Bath and another by Dunn of Alnwick, along with several 17th and 18th century ledger stones within the chancel. A large Flemish chest of early 14th century date decorated with foliage, dragons and a hunting scene is of the very highest quality. Beneath the tower and to the west of the south porch lies a collection of approximately twenty 12th to 14th century cross slabs, some with unusual emblems.

The church stands within a large churchyard bounded by stone walls with triangular coping stones, entered at the south-east corner through a wrought iron lych gate with double metal gates attached to ornate stone pillars capped with bell-shaped finials.