Church Of St Michael

SD 45 SE COCKERHAM

12/58 Church of St. Michael 2.5.1968

GV II*

Church, 1910 by Austin & Paley, with C16th west tower ('1589' said to be inscribed on beam from tower). Snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar tower and slate roof. Comprises a west tower, a nave with clearstorey and a chancel under a continuous roof, north and south aisles, and south transept with vestry. The 3-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, a stair turret on the south side, and an embattled parapet. The bell openings are each of 3 pointed lights under a Tudor-arched head with hood. The west window is similar. The west doorway has a round arch, hollow chamfered in 2 orders. The aisle and clearestory windows have flat heads and cusped lights. On the south side the aisle and clearstorey each have 4 2-light windows, the 2 western aisle windows being paired. On the north side there are 4 nave bays with similar windows. The western bay of the chancel is aisled and has a 3-light window. Its eastern bay has a 6-light mullioned and transomed window. The doorway, in the western nave bay, has a porch-like ashlar surround of shallow projection and is moulded with pointed head and hood. The east window, flanked by buttresses with offsets, has 4 cusped lights under a pointed head with Perpendicular tracery and ogee quatrefoils. Interior has 5-bay nave arcades with pointed arches hollow-chamfered in 2 orders and piers with 8 sides, 4 concave on plan, and no capitals. The tower opening has plain reveals and a high pointed arch. Between nave and chancel there is no arch, but the piers are round. Above them attached shafts on corbels support the roof truss. The 2 bays of the chancel arcades have a round pier with capital on the north and a pier with 4 of its 8 sides ovolo-moulded to the south. The piscina and twin sedilia have depressed ogee heads. The roof trusses have braced tie beams, queen posts, and raking queen struts. Intermediate trusses have arch-braced collars. Wall tablets re-set from the previous church include one in the gothic style to James Clarke (d.1845) by F. Webster of Kendal, and the Creed and Lord's prayer in an elaborate gothic frame. The east window contains figures of the 4 evangelists dating from 1865.