Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A parish church occupying the site at West Felton, with work spanning from the early and late 12th century to the late 19th century. The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north aisle, south aisle, porch, and south vestry.

The tower dates to 1784 and rises in three stages with corner pilasters, a moulded cornice and parapet, and a pyramidal tile cap topped with a late 18th-century weathercock. The belfry features louvred round-headed windows with projecting keystones and imposts; roundels below on the north, south and west sides have similar moulded keystones, with iron grilles to those on north and west and a clock to the south. Blind roundels with keystones appear on the second stage to north and south. An infilled square-headed doorway occupies the north side, with an inserted three-light Decorated-style window of 1878–79 to the west.

The exterior is constructed in sandstone ashlar for the tower, north aisle and chancel, while the remainder features regularly coursed and dressed rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings. Machine-tile roofs with coped verges cover all sections.

The lean-to south aisle is buttressed in five bays with a continuous moulded cill band. It contains three paired two-light windows with cusped heads, positioned one to the left and two to the right of a gabled porch in the third bay from the west. The porch has a pointed double-chamfered outer arch with hoodmould and a carved cross to the gable; it contains an encaustic tile floor and a contemporary double-chamfered inner door. The west wall of the aisle has a two-light Decorated-style window.

The north aisle comprises four bays with paired lancets displaying hoodmoulds and carved heads at the intersection of left and right windows. The third window from the left incorporates a doorway with a segmental-pointed arch beneath it. The west wall holds a similar window. The east wall features a triplet of stepped lancets with moulded shafts and stiff-leaf capitals; the hoodmould carries floriated label-stops.

The chancel displays two windows on its north side with reticulated tracery and hoodmoulds with floriated label-stops. An east window of three cusped lights with mouchettes above is accompanied by a two-light Decorated-style window of circa 1879 on the south. The gabled south vestry has a three-light Decorated-style window to its gable, which is finished with an octagonal louvre-like finial. A pointed doorway with hoodmould and floriated label-stops faces east.

Interior

The north nave arcade dates to the early 12th century and comprises four round-headed arches with one step and single chamfering; circular piers support square abaci with chamfered bases, and 12th-century masonry rises above the arches. The south nave arcade also spans four bays in early Transitional style but was apparently largely rebuilt in 1878–79, with round-headed arches featuring one step and no chamfering; circular piers carry heavily restored capitals and bases with octagonal abaci.

A restored four-centred chancel arch, probably of the 14th century, adjoins a stilted pointed tower arch of 1878–79. The nave retains a 15th-century arch-braced collar-beam roof in six bays with cusped struts to the principal rafters forming lozenge shapes and two tiers of cusped wind braces. A panelled roof of approximately 1879 covers the chancel, while a collar-braced roof of 1841 covers the north aisle.

An octagonal 15th-century font with pedestal and carved quatrefoils to the bowl was considerably restored in 1840. An oak chest at the west end of the nave is inscribed with the date "1686" and the churchwardens' initials "TB" and "ID"; a 17th-century chest in front of the north door has rosette decoration and the inscription "RC". A 17th-century table, now serving as an altar at the east end of the north aisle, has turned balusters and round-headed arches with leaf carving to the spandrels. A wooden pulpit with carved Gothic tracery is dated 1879, with other fittings and furnishings of the late 19th century.

The church contains a notable collection of stained glass. The east window depicts scenes from the Crucifixion, probably by David Evans of Shrewsbury. Further Evans glass appears in the north aisle. East and north-east windows in the north aisle were presented by the Kenyon family in 1841–42 and 1861 respectively and contain small medallions depicting famous paintings such as Raphael's Transfiguration and Rubens's Christ Taken Down from the Cross. A window above the north door shows Moses and Aaron, probably contemporary with the construction of the aisle. A window in the third bay from the west commemorates members of the Mostyn-Owen family of Woodhouse and was created by Kempe in 1902. Mid-19th-century stained glass appears in the chancel north wall, with the right window dating to circa 1860. Glass in the first window from the west in the south aisle (the eastern of the two lights) is reputed to be by Ninian Comper, dating to circa 1925.

Monuments include a cartouche to Edward Jones (died 1673) on the chancel north wall. An elaborate wall memorial with fluted urn on a tapering chest tomb stands at the east end of the south nave arcade, erected by John Dovaston in 1793 in memory of his parents and brothers. Various 19th-century wall memorials to members of the Mostyn-Owen family occupy the north aisle. A board dated 1718 on the tower south wall records lands belonging to West Felton Parsonage at that time.

The north aisle was added in 1841, the chancel was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott in 1848, and further restoration took place in 1878–79, during which the south aisle, porch, vestry, and south wall of the chancel were rebuilt.