Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Mansell Lacy

Parish church built over several centuries from the 12th to 15th centuries, with significant restorations undertaken around 1861 and 1878 when the north vestry and organ chamber were added. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings, the vestry having a brick lining, and is roofed in tile.

The church comprises a west tower, a three- to four-bay nave with south aisle and porch, and a three-bay chancel with north vestry and organ chamber.

The west tower has three diminishing stages separated by moulded string courses. It is topped with a pyramidical roof and weathercock. The top stage has pairs of trefoiled ogeed bell openings to the south and west sides, and single trefoiled and ogeed openings to the east and north sides. The middle stage features a central ogeed trefoiled light to the south and a clock face to the west. The ground stage has a rectangular opening with a mutilated head on the west side and a loop to the north side. The south side features a central chamfered doorway with a two-centred head, fitted with a ledged oak door with strap hinges, likely dating to the 18th or 19th century. Above and to the right of the doorway is weathering supported by three corbels. Short oblique pyramidical buttresses, about two feet high, are positioned at the west corners.

The north elevation of the nave has two windows, both 19th-century work with two trefoiled ogeed lights. The left window has a lozenge in the spandrel; the right has a recessed moulded quatrefoil. Three weathered buttresses support this elevation. Immediately to the left of the tower is a small weathered projection beneath which is a loop providing access to stairs. The vestry and organ chamber, dated 1878 by inscription on a plaque, incorporates a cellar and has a pair of trefoil-headed lights above. Each return has a single trefoiled and ogeed light.

The chancel has two windows on its north side. The right window has a pair of trefoil-headed lights; the left is similar but with a glazed lozenge in the spandrel. A weathered buttress stands between the two windows. The east elevation of the chancel has three stepped pointed lights within a two-centred head, probably of early 14th-century date. The mullions, jambs, arch and cill are decorated with ball-flowers spaced about one foot apart. Diagonal weathered buttresses occupy each corner, and the gable features a verge and gable cross. The south elevation of the chancel has two windows similar to those on the north side, plus a third two-light trefoiled window opposite the vestry and organ chamber. A weathered buttress stands between the centre and right-hand window. A large valley gutter with moulded sides runs between the verge and the south-east corner of the tower.

The south aisle has three pairs of trefoil-headed lights, with two to the right of the south porch and one to the left. The east return features three stepped trefoiled lights with verge and gable cross. The west end of the aisle has a two-light trefoiled window with a quatrefoil in the tracery, also with verge and gable cross.

The 15th-century south porch has a verge and gable cross. It features a two-centred chamfered outer arch and brattished wall-plates. The roof is a restored open wagon roof with seven trusses. An projecting octagonal stoup with chamfered undersides is set in a round-headed recess. The south doorway has square shouldered jambs supporting an incised lintel, perhaps formerly a tympanum. Above the lintel are two corbels with symmetrical scrolls, and centrally above these is a grotesque cat-mask. The doorway is fitted with a 19th-century ledged oak door with strap hinges.

Interior

The nave has an open wagon roof, possibly of 14th-century date. The chancel has similar trusses but with three moulded purlins, one supporting collars and one to arch-braces on each slope. The south aisle and vestry roofs are 19th-century work. The chancel has a lowered cill in the south-west window forming a window seat or sedilia, and a pair of opposed moulded brackets on the north and south walls. Moulded 19th-century responds are positioned to the east side of the vestry.

The chancel arch is 13th-century, with a double-chamfered two-centred head. Its responds are part octagonal with moulded capitals. The nave has a three-bay arcade to the south aisle, with two orders of double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and unusual spurs to the bases. To the east of the arcade is a large lintel supported on corbels, with a grotesque head in the middle of the north side. A projection at the north-west corner contains a narrow chamfered doorway with a shouldered head, fitted with a two-panelled ledged door and strap hinges, leading to the tower stairs. A small 19th-century doorway of similar design leads through the centre of the east wall of the tower; above is a corbel head and a triangular-headed inner arch with deep splays to a lancet which, before the tower was built, lit the nave.

Monuments and Furnishings

On the north wall is a monument to William Traunter, dated 1691. It is of stone with a slate inscription panel, features a cornice with shield of arms and foliated margins, and an apron with a cherub. The south wall carries a monument to the infants Samuel and Simeon Traunter, who died in 1675 and 1676. This stone monument has an open segmental pediment with ends scrolled inwards, reclining horn-blowing putti on the pediment, and an apron with a cherub. A wall plaque commemorates Captain A G M Burn, killed in action near Gheluvelt, Flanders, at the First Battle of Ypres on 29th October 1914. Another oak plaque on the south side of the easternmost arcade pier records six men of the parish who died in the Great War.

The font is probably of 12th or 13th-century date, with a round base, chamfered and moulded stem, and a tapered round bowl.

A wall monument to William Weaver, died 1801, is by J Passen of Tillington. It is executed in black, yellow and white marble with tapering margins and drapery.

The reredos is of late 19th-century oak and features a painting of the Last Supper with gables containing figures of St Michael and St George, surmounted by a crested top. A contemporary communion table has foliated panels. A pair of mid-19th-century free-standing tripod candlesticks are of wrought iron with scrolled feet and cylindrical stems rising to a corona with five brass grease-pans each; the ironwork is painted in blue and red.

The pulpit is 19th-century pine work, part octagonal with recessed trefoil-headed panels and a two-branch brass candelabrum attached to the top rail. In the eastern bay is a late 19th-century cast-iron stove, approximately five feet high by three feet in diameter, with deep fins and a crown-finial on fluted capping.

The organ is late 19th-century work, mainly cased in pine with exposed gilded pipes framed by three panels with two-centred heads. Choir desks, probably early 20th-century and possibly of elm, have pointed panels with a pair of matching single desks.

The south aisle contains a piscina with chamfers and a two-centred head, with a square drain on a projecting bracket beneath a recessed two-centred chamfered arch. A grotesque corbel head rises above the south doorway. The east window has moulded angles part-way up the jambs.

Stained Glass

The east window contains late 19th-century stained glass depicting The Three Shepherds, St George and the Dragon, the Resurrection, and prophets to the side. The south-west window has a small stained glass panel of Christ and the apostles, probably of late 19th-century date. A squint in the west splay of the south-west window has a moulded lintel. A small panel of stained glass in the east window of the south aisle consists of a red cross on a yellow ground.

Miscellaneous

The vestry contains a cast-iron chest with two raised and fielded panels to the sides and top, inscribed "COAKBROOKDALE".

A rectangular recess on the south side of the easternmost arcade pier was probably formerly an aumbry.