Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

Parish church in Loppington, dating from the 14th and late 15th centuries, partly rebuilt in the mid-17th and early 18th centuries, and restored in 1870. The building is constructed of regularly coursed and dressed yellow and red sandstone with plain tile roofs featuring coped verges and ornamental cresting. It comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south aisle and porch.

Tower

The tower is late 15th century and rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses and a slightly projecting north-east rectangular stair turret. It is topped with an embattled parapet with gargoyles to three corners, enclosing a pyramidal roof with ornamental brass weathercock. The belfry openings are two-light trefoil-headed, with a small lancet to the second stage on the south side. The west window has three cusped lights with panel tracery above. A segmental-headed west doorway has a hoodmould and nail-studded door. Below the second stage is a vaulted canopy for a former statue with a bracket beneath to a string course carved with a female figure holding a shield with a cross upon it.

Nave and Aisle

The north side of the nave is buttressed in two unequal bays and features a heavily restored 2-light 14th-century window immediately west of the buttress, and a pointed triple-chamfered 14th-century doorway that was reused when this section of wall was rebuilt in the mid-17th century. The section to the east was rebuilt in 1716, as evidenced by a date stone inscribed "EDWARD KYNASTON / SAMUEL HAMPTON / CHURCHWARDENS / 1716".

The 15th-century south aisle is buttressed in three bays and has two broad 3-light windows with 4-centred arches on the south side and one on the west with a similar window of four lights to the east. All have head stops, that to the west on the south featuring two heads to one stop. A timber-framed porch in the west bay is dated 1656 with the name of Nicholas Dickin, churchwarden, in raised lettering to the lintel; it has been considerably restored with sandstone ashlar side walls. The heavily restored 15th-century south doorway has a 4-centred arch under a square label with spandrels, massive nail-studded double doors, and a 18th-century royal coat-of-arms above on the outside.

Chancel

The short one-bay chancel has a 15th-century window on the south similar to those in the aisle, and a contemporary narrow doorway with a 2-centred arch to the west. The north side features a heavily restored 2-light trefoil-headed window with an armorial shield to the apex, and the east window has three lights with reticulated tracery, hoodmould and head stops.

Interior

The pointed tower arch has moulded capitals from the 15th century, whilst the chancel arch with corbelled responds and carved heads dates from the 19th century. The three-bay 15th-century south arcade originally had oak columns but these were replaced in the 19th century with round-arched and octagonal piers following damage sustained during the English Civil War.

The main interior feature is the mid-17th-century arch-braced collar-beam roof to the nave, which displays carved pendant knobs, single tiers of ogee-curved wind braces and miniature hammer beams. The hammer beams bear shields with the arms of local families, except for the north-west example which has a carved grotesque face. A similar but less elaborate roof covers the aisle.

The late 19th-century octagonal font is present, though a large basin nearby is probably medieval. The panelled pulpit is likely early 18th century, and some contemporary panelling has been reused in 19th-century pews and the organ gallery. A 17th-century oak chest stands in front of the north door, and a 19th-century board records the benefactions of Mary Griffiths of Woodgate to the parish. Late 19th-century stained glass appears in various windows throughout the church.

Monuments and Memorials

Numerous 18th- and 19th-century wall tablets and memorials to members of local families are located throughout the church. The chancel north wall and aisle south wall display 18th-century funerary hatchments.

Historical Context

The church was granted to Wombridge Priory in Herefordshire circa 1190. During the English Civil War, the building was held by Parliamentarian forces in 1643 but was subsequently stormed and taken by the Royalists, causing considerable damage in the process.