Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A parish church of limestone and stone rubble construction located on the south side of Coningsby High Street, this building spans the 13th to 15th centuries, with a chancel rebuilt in 1870 by T. C. Hine. The roofs are of slate and lead.

The most prominent feature is the 14th-century ashlar tower, which stands open to the west. It is a three-stage structure with a moulded plinth, angle buttresses, and an embattled parapet. The top belfry stage, added in the 15th century, is fitted with gargoyles. Each of the four cardinal directions contains triple cusped louvered lights with panelled tracery and deeply moulded surrounds. The west wall displays a large circular unglazed sexlobe tracery light with moulded surround. The middle stage has two small ogee-headed lights, with two further examples on its side walls. These side walls also contain tall moulded pointed-arched openings, apparently serving as a processional route. The tower features a ribbed vault rising to a circular bell opening. The west wall of the nave retains a blocked tower doorway, now containing a smaller 14th-century door with moulded surround and a contemporary circular window with eight cusped lobes. A painted clock face with a single hand adorns the east wall of the tower—reportedly the largest of its kind in the country.

The nave is clerestoried and flanked by aisles. The north aisle is of greenstone construction and features two and three light 14th-century reticulated windows. Its contemporary doorway has a moulded head dying to the reveals. The nave's clerestory is an unusual 19th-century addition of ten arched lights with rounded cills, arranged in pairs. The 15th-century south aisle is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with a plain parapet and contains three broad three-light windows and one narrower window, all with cusped heads, panel tracery, and cambered arches; a matching window appears in the east wall. The chancel, rebuilt in 19th-century rockfaced limestone ashlar in mid-13th-century style, features a facetted sanctuary.

The two-storey 15th-century south porch is also of coursed limestone rubble with a plain parapet. Its outer door is continuously moulded with a pointed head, above which sits a three-light window serving the parvise. The parapet is plain, with side lights to the upper stage. The inner doorway matches the outer.

Internally, the five-bay 13th-century nave arcades display double chamfered arches with hood moulds terminated by human head stops—one notably depicting a woman with a mouthstrap. The piers, responds, and capitals are octagonal, with some capitals bearing stiff leaf carving. A blocked tower arch of double chamfered form contains a circular window glazed with stained glass of 1871. The 14th-century nave roof comprises ten bays with king post construction, arch-braced struts, and through and collar purlins. The 14th-century chancel arch has a moulded pointed head with triple responds and annular and octagonal imposts. The north aisle contains a two-light 19th-century opening with a marble central shaft and cinquefoil over. The south aisle preserves a small 14th-century planked door with its contemporary closing ring and handle. Two doorways to the rood loft survive on the south side of the chancel. The 19th-century chancel features a pointed organ loft opening on the north side, with marble shafts on corbels. The sanctuary windows have shafted reveals, and the roof above features radiating rafters. An ogee-headed piscina appears in the south wall.

The church contains 19th-century furnishings alongside earlier pieces. The chancel screen of the 19th century incorporates parts of the base of the medieval screen. An 18th-century octagonal panelled pulpit stands on a moulded stand. Eighteenth-century dado panelling lines the interior. A 14th-century octagonal font features a waterholding moulded base and panelled sides. Two charity boards hang in the aisles.

A marble wall plaque in the chancel, executed in Greek taste, commemorates Mary and John Burnham, who died in 1841.