Church Of St Michael

STOWE C.P. STOWE SO 37 SW 11/176 - Church of St. Michael 21.3.68 - II*

Parish church. Probably mid-C13 with late C17 bellcote, restored in late C19, when chancel was rebuilt. Uncoursed limestone rubble with regularly coursed and dressed rubble to south and east walls of chancel; plain tile roofs with ornamental cresting, hipped to west end of nave; weatherboarded belfry has pyramidal slate cap. Nave with west belfry, chancel, south porch and north vestry. Belfry: weatherboarded with more distinctly overlapping boards to bell-stage: square on plan. Nave. Windows all late C19. South side has 2 pairs of cinquefoil-headed lancets to east of porch and one trefoil- headed lancet to west. Gabled stone porch has outer ogee- headed wooden arch and inner plain pointed C19 doorway. Armorial shield inset in wall to right of porch has date "(1)581" and initials "IH" in raised lettering. West window with paired lancets and roundel above has hoodmould and label- stops and gable piercing eaves. North wall has 2 cusped lancets to west. Vestry at north-east end with paired cusped lancets in west wall. Chancel has 2 cusped lancets in south wall and east window of 3 stepped broad cusped lancets. Interior. Main feature is heavily restored, probably C17, arch- braced collar beam roof, which has arch-braces alternating with slightly cambered moulded tie beams having vertical struts supporting collars; both types of truss with v-struts from collar. 6 bays to nave and 2 bays to chancel, latter roof almost entirely rebuilt in C19. Double purlins and 2 tiers of quatrefoil- shaped windbraces. Division between nave and chancel marked by heavier tie beam with braces beneath pierced by C19 cusped tracery, part of double truss adapted to give impression of rood screen in C19. Majority of fittings and furnishings including benches, pulpit and octagonal font are mid-to late C19. Partly Jacobean communion table with fluted underside. Stained glass. West window 1887 and west windows on north and south c.1859. Glass in chancel more notable: east window in memory of Revd. John Rogers (died 1878) looks similar in style and date to south-east and south-west windows (1893 and 1895 respectively): in the Walter Crane style, possibly by Powell's. Arts and Crafts style reredos also by Powell's in memory of Rogers's fifth son, George Frank Van Zõelen Rogers (died 1901). Mosaic and marble with copper and mother of pearl. Depicts St. Michael on left and St. George on right. Monuments in similar style to Charlotte Victoria (died 1911), wife of Revd. John Rogers (north wall) and to his fourth son, Arthur de Norbury (died 1862, aged one day) (south wall), latter probably retrospective. Contemporary black and white marble floor to chancel, including sanctuary. B.o.E. pp. 298-9; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 5 (1901), p.426.

Listing NGR: SO3100673697