Abbey Church Of St Michael And All Angels

This is a substantial stone church built in sandstone with Forest of Dean stone dressings and a tiled roof. The building comprises an aisled nave of three bays with a crossing tower, transepts, an aisled choir of four bays, and a sanctuary. There are side chapels to the south of the nave and at the east end of the chancel aisles.

The west front displays considerable architectural richness. A central doorway features colonettes at either side and a richly moulded arch with hoodmould. Above rises a tall five-light window with tracery featuring a rose to its upper body incorporating trefoils and hexafoils, with a large cross in the tracery. Three trefoils cluster below a hoodmould at the gable top. Buttresses with offsets and gabled caps flank either side, beyond which the aisle windows consist of two lights with mouchettes and quatrefoils to the apex.

The crossing tower rises behind the west front, featuring two recessed belfry openings on each face, each containing two louvered lights. Angle buttresses and a crenellated parapet complete the tower design. Clock faces appear below the belfry stage on both north and south faces.

The nave flanks display six clerestory lights of two lights each, paired by a common hoodmould and separated by buttresses. The aisle roofs are lean-to, with five-light windows featuring mouchettes and cinquefoils to each apex. A porch projects from the centre of the north aisle, having been relocated here in 1863 from the south side. This porch has a statue of the Virgin and Child in a canopied niche above the door and two-light windows flanking. A side chapel, built after 1863 on the site of the removed south porch, is less deep and has a three-light window.

The northern transept projects further than its southern counterpart. It displays a four-light window to its gable end with two quatrefoils above in the gable, all with hoodmoulds. A recessed marble plaque below the window commemorates Thomas Joseph Brown, bishop, who died on 12 April 1880. The west flank has a two-light window with a projecting confessional below, featuring two lancet lights. The east flank adjoins the organ chamber. The south transept has a similar gable end and includes a doorway leading via a late-20th-century addition to the monastery building.

The choir has a complex outline with side aisles flanked by the Chapel of St Bernard to the south and the organ chamber to the north. The aisles have pitched roofs rather than the lean-to roofing of the nave. Clerestory lighting is provided by gabled dormers rising above the aisle roofs. The aisles have three-light windows to their eastern ends. The Chapel of St Bernard features two three-light windows to its south flank, surmounted by gablets, and a rose window to its eastern end. The organ chamber includes a projecting wing with a small rose window and a turret with a steeply-pitched hipped roof. A blocked arch and keyed stonework at the eastern end of the north aisle mark the site of an intended chantry chapel for Francis Wegg-Prosser and his family, shown on an 1878 perspective drawing with a canted eastern apse.

The chancel has a reset eastern window dating from 1856 or 1859, placed high in the gable wall to accommodate the reredos below. The chancel flanks have pairs of three-light windows projecting in square bays with gables cutting through the parapet. Below each window is a hooded quatrefoil with an angel holding a shield.

The interior of the nave displays rich carving, possibly by Wall of Cheltenham, including foliate capitals to the arcades, green man masks as label stops, and angel corbels supporting clustered colonettes that rise to support the roof trusses. The nave roof has two ranks of purlins and arched wind braces. The crossing piers have carved capitals and inward-facing bosses carved with the signs of the Evangelists, supporting a liern vault of stone beneath the tower. The choir and sanctuary have a continuous panelled roof. The choir features an arcade of four stilted arches to each side. Beneath the clerestory dormer windows are four panel paintings given to the church in 1881.

At either side of the sanctuary stand tall columns of alternating blocks of alabaster and limestone, now painted, with simply moulded capitals. The recessed bays behind them have alabaster panelling to their lower bodies. The east wall lower body bears panels of carved slate in front of which stands a square stone pillar bearing the tabernacle, both dating from 1972. Above is the original reredos of the former high altar, with three relief panels showing a crown aloft in the centre flanked by winged angels playing musical instruments.

The Lady Chapel in the south choir aisle and the Chapel of St Joseph in the north choir aisle each have carved reredos with carved altar fronts. The Chapel of St Benedict is divided from the south choir aisle by a stone screen with glazed panels and contains a further carved reredos and altar front. Between the windows of its south wall is a reliquary with an enamelled metal door set in a marble surround.

The building contains stained glass windows of considerable quality throughout. The nave aisles display windows showing English Martyrs, while the western end shows the life of St Thomas of Hereford. The eastern walls of the sanctuary feature St Michael and the Nine Choirs of Angels. The Chapel of St Benedict, the Lady Chapel, and the Chapel of St Joseph also contain significant stained glass. The great majority of these windows were made by Hardman and Co., with some, such as the east window, showing the style or influence of JH Powell. Exceptions include the windows in the St Joseph chapel by Cox and Buckley, and the eastern window in St Benedict chapel, which is French or Belgian.

Two prominent tombs occupy the north transept. The tomb of Bishop Brown stands against the north wall with marble pillars supporting a gabled stone canopy with angel finials and miniature vault. The recumbent figure lies on a panelled tomb-chest with figures of angels at his feet and head, and traceried panels to the wall. The tomb of Bishop Hedley is carved from black and white marble in early-Renaissance style, set against the east wall. The vested bishop lies on a carved representation of a straw burial pallet, with coats of arms on the tomb-chest sides. A stone tablet with armorial attached to the south-western crossing pier commemorates Francis Wegg-Prosser, probably to the design of FW Walters.