Church of St Michael le Belfrey

Church of St Michael le Belfrey

This parish church was built between 1525 and 1537, with the vestry, west front and bellcote added in 1867. The building underwent significant 19th-century alterations carried out by G Fowler Jones. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with roofs of lead and stone slate.

The church has a six-bay continuous aisled nave and chancel with clerestory, an east vestry, and a west porch and bellcote. A double moulded plinth runs around all sides. The east end is partially obscured by the vestry. The east window contains five cinque-foiled lights with panel tracery in a two-centred head. The north aisle east window has two pairs of trefoiled ogee lights in a traceried four-centred head.

The north and south sides are articulated by two-stage buttresses. Those on the north side are further decorated with gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles. The westernmost bay on each side features traceried double doors in four-centred arches of two orders with side shafts. The spandrels of these doors are carved with Tudor flowers in quatrefoils and are flanked by standards with crocketed pinnacles. Each remaining bay contains a window similar to that in the east end of the north aisle, with a moulded sill string appearing on the south side only. The south side displays a band of cusped lozenge panels enclosing armorial shields beneath the windows. All windows have casement-moulded surrounds and hoodmoulds with return stops. A coved eaves string runs beneath a plain parapet with moulded coping, returned at the east end. The clerestory windows, two to each bay, have square heads and tripled trefoil-headed lights.

The west end features a crow-stepped gable. The west door and window are framed beneath a four-centred moulded arch with carved spandrels springing from three-stage buttress piers with cross-gabled and crocketed pinnacles. An octagonal bellcote of paired cinquefoiled lights, capped by a pierced embattled parapet, surmounts the arch. The west doorway is similar to those in the aisles, with a band of cusped lozenge panels beneath a gabled door head with a carved tympanum. The west window repeats the east window, while the aisle end windows repeat those on the north and south sides, with moulded sill strings. An octagonal stair turret at the south-west has moulded strings at plinth and sill levels, two slit lights, a coved eaves string incorporating grotesque beasts, two tiers of blind traceried panels, and a band of blind quatrefoils at the base of a pointed octagonal roof.

The interior features nave arcades of four-centred arches on shafted piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases. Above these runs a continuous hoodmould on heraldic angel stops, with spandrels carved with quatrefoils enclosing roses, fruit and other ornaments. A moulded clerestory string and trefoiled panels appear beneath the windows. A three-bay reredos of raised and fielded panelling is articulated by fluted Composite columns with entablature and small segmental pediments filled with cartouches and palm fronts. The bolection-moulded centre panel bears a painted representation of the Adoration of the Shepherds, while the outer panels contain the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The communion rails feature bulbous balusters carved with foliage and spirals, bowed gates at the centre, and a heavy flat rail.

At the west end stands a gallery with a panelled front. Two staircases, cased in raised and fielded panelling with Gothick balustrades and serpentine handrails wreathed at the foot around column newels on shaped curtail steps, flank the gallery. Six-panel doors at the stair heads, shaped to fit the pier responds, provide access to the gallery. A four-centred chamfered doorway at the foot of the south staircase leads to the turret. A hatchment of the Royal Arms, originally positioned above the reredos, is now attached to the gallery front. Benefaction boards are found in the gallery—two within bolection-moulded surrounds and two with four-centred heads—and in the north aisle—two with semicircular heads. Lord Mayoral boards are positioned beneath the gallery, showing dates 1711–1720, 1764–1859, and 1872–1969.

The stained glass has been rearranged and restored during the 19th and 20th centuries. The east window contains mid-14th-century glass, and the aisle windows contain early 16th-century glass.

Monuments and brasses include, at the east end, a carved stone cartouche to Ann, wife of William Walker, died 1687, and a carved stone cartouche to John White, died 1716/7. On the north wall are a pedimented tablet with floral side scrolls to Mary Grammar, died 1738; a scrolled cartouche to Thomas James, died 1732; and a sarcophagus tablet to Baldwin Wake, MD, died 1842, signed by Flintoft. Brasses commemorate Thomas Dawnay, died 1683, and Frances, wife of William Farrer, died 1680/1, the latter signed by Joshua Mann. The south aisle, east end, features a large wall monument to Sir Robert Squire, died 1707, and his wife Priscilla, died 1711, showing two sculpted figures beneath a swagged open pediment on fluted Corinthian pilasters. Also in this location are a shaped tablet with cornice and floriated sides to an infant Vavasour, died 1728, and a scrolled cartouche to Mary Woodyeare, née Drake, died 1728.

The south wall contains a pilastered monument with cornice and apron to Catherine and Christine North, died 1734; a tablet with shield of arms to Sir Thomas Fothergill, died 1735; a tablet with urn to John Blanshard, died 1770, and his wife Mary, died 1789; a tablet with urn in a broken pediment to the children and wife Elizabeth, died 1790, of John Metcalfe; a separate monument with sarcophagus and military emblems to Lieutenant and Adjutant John Crossland of the York City Regiment of Local Militia, died 1813, signed by Fishers, York; and an oval tablet of black marble to Mary Lawson, died 1774.