Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Macclesfield

Parish church of 13th-century origin, substantially remodelled and extensively rebuilt in 1898–1902 by Sir Arthur Blomfield, with later additions. The exterior is built of roughly coursed and squared red sandstone with an ashlar tower and stone-flagged roof. The building comprises a nave with two aisles, a clerestory, a south-west tower, two south chapels (added 1501–7 and 1620), and a chancel with flanking vestries.

The west front features a door with a 5-light Perpendicular window above it, set beneath a string course and ashlar gable coping. The tower is narrow with a heavy stepped plinth and angle buttresses. A narrow west doorway is flanked by statues in niches, with a quatrefoil frieze and 3-light Decorated window above. A triple niche sits over the clock face, with paired bell chamber lights on either side flanked by shields of arms (one recently renewed). Thin pilaster strips rise through the upper stage, and the tower carries an embattled parapet with gargoyles and angle pinnacles.

The north aisle has six bays divided by shallow buttresses, with square-headed Perpendicular traceried windows featuring continuous sill bands and a moulded cornice above. An embattled parapet rises above shallow-arched clerestory windows. The eastern bay of the aisle contains two Decorated windows with transoms. The chancel clerestory has three pointed-arched windows with an embattled parapet. A large 5-light Decorated east window, divided by a transom, lights the chancel. The Legh Chapel projects from the south aisle, with a hipped stone-flagged roof, circular stair tower, and an ornate traceried panelled porch to the west.

The interior, largely of 1898–1902 in late Decorated style, exhibits exposed stonework throughout. The nave arcade comprises four bays plus an additional lower bay to the east, now housing the organ to the north, with a narrow arch to the north-west. A single respond of the earlier, late 13th-century arcade survives to the west of the south arcade—a plain chamfered arch carried on a corbel.

The main arcade has octagonal pillars with castellated moulding to the capitals. Foliate corbels carry wall posts for the main roof trusses, with the lower post of stone and timber above. Shallow cambered tie beams with castellated moulding and arched braces feature shields and foliate decoration in the spandrels, with open traceried panels between short queen posts. The principal trusses are linked by enriched shallow arched braces spanning the clerestory windows. Carved angels bearing shields appear at the base of each roof bay.

Two side chapels are linked to the south aisle by an arcade with two shallow arches and steeper doorways; an earlier archway to the west is now partially blocked. Against the east wall of the south aisle stands a tomb to Thomas Rivers (died 1694), depicting the recumbent figure in a pedimented and draped aedicule, sculpted by William Stanton and moved and repaired in 1978. A small font, recovered from the churchyard, features a shallow fluted basin with an enriched wooden lid on a balustraded shaft, dated 1744. An open-work timber pulpit with an octagonal pulpit body depicts figures of saints in high relief.

Semi-octagonal responds flank the chancel arch. The chancel, accessed by steps, is fitted with a low wrought-iron screen. A hammer beam roof and mosaic floor occupy the chancel space. Two shallow arched tomb recesses on the south feature deep moulding with ogee hoodmoulds decorated with fleurons; a similar ogee arch frames the vestry doorway to the south and the sedilia to north and south. A lower tomb recess in the same style appears to the north. The reredos is by Sir Charles Nicholson. Tombs include those of Sir John Savage the 4th (died 1495) and his wife Catherine, shown as recumbent figures holding hands; and an unknown knight of circa 1475 to the north.

The Legh Chapel, formerly the baptistery, contains an octagonal font with blind traceried panels and green marble clustered shafts. A south window features stained glass by Shrigley and Hunt (1903) depicting Old and New Testament figures linked by the baptism theme to lower narrative lights. An upper chamber, reached by a staircase from the Savage Chapel, is said to have been the former school room.

The Savage Chapel contains two tomb recesses in the archway from the south aisle: Sir John Savage the 5th (died 1492) and Sir John Savage the 6th(?). A narrow 16th-century doorway adjoins the chapel. A canted bay for the altar projects to the east, with canopied niches in the flanking walls. Stained glass by Morris and Company shows the Ascension with English Saints in side lights. Two tomb recesses in the south wall each have a deeply-moulded arch with steep pointed hoodmould and fleurons, with coats of arms carved in the apex: Sir John Savage the 7th (died 1528) and his wife, shown as recumbent figures in a richly traceried recess with a small 3-light window featuring stained glass also by Morris and Company; and an unknown civilian of circa 1500, the central part of the figure uncarved from the stone block. A tomb against the west wall commemorates Sir John Savage the 8th (died 1597) and his wife, showing two recumbent figures (the female at a higher level) within an aedicule, with polished shafts surmounted by obelisks and figures reclining on the arch. A small wall-mounted brass, the 'Legh Pardon' brass, is dated 1506. A high south window contains stained glass by Morris and Company (1917).

Stained glass is distributed throughout the nave, aisles and chancel. The chancel east window (1910) by Powell and Company depicts Christ in Majesty with St Michael. The north aisle contains windows by Morris and Company (1901 and 1914) in the west and north-west, a Kempe window towards the east as a Boer War memorial, an eastern window in Kempe style, and a central window of circa 1870 in pictorial unsigned style. The west nave window is a Queen Victoria memorial with Powell, showing the Queen enthroned in the centre with angels bearing texts on each side. The west window of the south aisle depicts the Agony in the Garden, undated but possibly by Morris and Company.