Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Lichfield

This is a church of mainly 13th-century origin with a 14th-century tower, but substantially rebuilt during restoration work of 1842–3 by Thomas Johnson, with the chancel further restored in 1890–1 by J. O. Scott. The building is constructed in ashlar with tile roofs, some featuring fishscale tiles.

The church comprises a 3-bay chancel with a projecting south organ loft and vestry, a 4-bay nave with clerestory and gabled aisles, and a west tower with spire. The structure features a plinth, sill courses and coped gables throughout.

The chancel contains an 1890 five-light east window with Perpendicular tracery and a blind trefoil above, topped with a gable cross. The 1842 north and south lancets have splayed reveals between tall gabled buttresses. The gabled organ loft projects from the south aisle with a diagonal buttress and a window of three cusped lights with a lancet above. A stair turret rises at the angle with the aisle. The vestry features a 2-light east window with flowing tracery over its low wall, which has a parapet and small double-chamfered-mullioned windows, with a further 2-cusped-light window opening from the organ loft.

The clerestory contains 2-light windows. The north aisle has 3-light windows with Perpendicular tracery between offset buttresses, with end diagonal buttresses and matching 3-light windows at the east and west ends. The 2-storey porch has an embattled parapet, a moulded arch entrance and a Perpendicular-style niche above containing a statue of St Michael, with relief monograms and armorial bearings to the north and east and the date 1843. The south aisle has an east bell turret and stack, 3-light windows with flowing tracery between offset buttresses, a west angle buttress and a 2-light window.

The tower has diagonal buttresses with some tile inserts, two tiers of cusped lancets and two 2-light louvred bell-openings, an embattled parapet and a needle spire with string courses. The spire features two tiers of lucarnes and a wind vane. Upper lancets open to the north and south only. A south entrance with a shouldered lintel provides access at ground level.

Interior

The chancel features a waggon-boarded roof with an arch springing from wall shafts and having traceried spandrels to the sanctuary. The floor is laid in marble with an open lozenge pattern. A south arch leads to the organ loft. The 1890s sedilia occupy a window recess, and a credence shelf in a recess with a cinquefoil arch is present to the north. An arched tomb recess contains a 14th-century effigy of a civilian with a lively dog at his feet, probably William de Walton, discovered in 1846. The chancel arch is of one order.

The nave has 4-bay Perpendicular-style arcades and a hammer-beam roof with arch-braced collars and cusped wind braces. A tower entrance with a 4-centred head and lancet above opens into the nave. The south aisle has an arch to the organ loft and a splayed angle entrance.

Fittings include a timber chancel reredos with four statues of archangels, a brass rail on wrought-iron grilles, stalls with tracery panels and figures in niches, and a matching pulpit. A good organ case is present. The nave font dates to 1669 and bears the initials WG with its date. It is octagonal with roll-moulded angles and stylised Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis. Painted Royal arms of 1711 are displayed above the chancel arch.

Memorials and Glass

The church contains many good 18th-century wall tablets and two floor slabs in the nave, including one to Samuel Johnson's parents and brother of 1784, which has been re-cut. The stained glass includes several 19th-century windows and a good east window of 1893–7.

The church stands on one of the oldest sites in Lichfield, recorded as one of England's five ancient Christian burial grounds.