Church Of St Michael

SO 64 NE; 2/123

CASTLE FROME CP, CASTLE FROME

Church of St Michael

06.03.67

GV

I

Parish church. C12, restored 1878 by B Martin Buckle of Malvern with addition of bell turret, south porch and north vestry. Nave, south porch, chancel and north vestry. Coursed and squared sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, tiled roof. Timber-framed bell turret and porch.

Nave: three bays; square plan west bell tower with spire, semicircular-headed window to left (blocked internally) and C15 window of three cinquefoil- headed lights to right of gabled porch, inner square-headed doorway with semi- circular headed relieving arch, blank tympanum, two semicircular-headed windows in north wall with massive squared masonry. Chancel: two bays; traceried C15 window of two cinquefoil-headed lights to left and window of two trefoil-headed lights to right, east window, C15 three cinquefoil-headed lights, semicircular-headed window survives in north wall.

INTERIOR: late C15 panelled roof, chancel, c1500 trussed rafter roof ceiled to west and boarded and panelled to east with moulded ribs and decorative bosses. Fittings: font, c1140, red sandstone, chalice shaped bowl with base formed by three crouching figures, decorated with three stranded plaiting along rim and irregular interlace to stem, carved representations of the Baptism of Christ, the four symbols of the evangelists, and the hand of God and two doves on the bowl. The font is one of the outstanding works of the Herefordshire school of sculpture with a mixture of local and French and Italian elements. Pulpit, early C18, three-sided with moulded cornice and bolection moulded panels.

Monuments: in chancel: Unett memorial, tomb chest c1630-40, sandstone with effigies of alabaster, draped sides with weepers probably representing children, two effigies, male and female in civil costume; Francis Unett memorial, wall tablet, 1656, stone and slate, broken pediment with coat of arms supported by twisted columns.

(RCHM Vol II, p 48/9, item 1; Romanesque Exhibition Catalogue 1983, item 139; F Bond, Fonts and Font Covers, 1908, p 52; L Stone, Sculpture in Britain in the Middle Ages, Pelican History of Art, 1955, p 476; A Gardner, English Medieval Sculpture, 1951, p 58).

Listing NGR: SO6675545868