Church Of St Michael

SD 82 SW RAWTENSTALL BURNLEY ROAD EAST Lumb

6/168 Church of St. Michael - - II

Church, 1847-8, by J. Clarke (Pevsner); altered. Sandstone rubble with steeply-pitched stone slate roofs (except nave, which is now slate) gable copings with figured kneelers. Cruciform plan: nave, transepts, apsidal chancel, focussed on a square crossing tower with cylindrical stair turret attached at south east corner. Norman style, with small round-headed windows. West end of 3-bay nave has added porch protecting a round-arched doorway which has shafts with cushion capitals, 3 windows above the porch, circular window in the gable; side walls of nave have 3 windows; short transepts have one window in each side, 2 in the gable and a circular window above; apse has 3 windows and roof with overhanging eaves. Short crossing tower of one stage above the ridge has on each side a round-headed belfry opening of 2 louvres with a cushion-capital colonette, corbelled parapet with roll-moulded weathered coping, and a weather vane rising from the centre of the roof (which is not visible); in south-east angle is an unusual 2-stage stair turret, the 1st stage square with a priest door and 2 lancets, the upper stage cylindrical with a conical cap. Interior: altered by insertion of partition wall in tower arch, leaving nave as single vessel, the only feature of interest being the arch-braced collar beam roof. History: Commissioners' church, cost £2,060 (Pevsner).

Listing NGR: SD8373824888