Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

A parish church formerly collegiate, originally built in the 13th century with additions and alterations from the 14th century, major refenestration in the 16th century (possibly reusing 13th-century material), and extensively restored in 1881 by J. A. Chatwin of Birmingham. The building is constructed of red sandstone ashlar with low-pitch lead-covered roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave and aisles, a south porch with diagonal buttresses, a four-bay chancel with aisles and diagonal buttresses, and a north-west vestry.

The west tower is three stages tall with a second stage offset. It features a moulded belfry string, moulded parapet string, and a frieze of shields to the crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The first stage dates to the 14th century and contains jambs and an arch of a pointed west door with continuous wave moulding. The upper stages are 16th-century, with the second stage featuring a west window of two tiers of four-cinquefoil-headed lights, two tiers of small trefoil-headed lights above, and a hoodmould terminating in stylised heads. Pointed belfry openings each have three cinquefoil-headed lights with small trefoil-headed lights over.

The nave and aisles feature crenellated parapets with crocketed pinnacles. A 16th-century clerestory with paired two-light windows lights the nave. The north aisle has drop arch windows of two transomed lights, with lower lights trefoiled under low four-centred arches and upper lights with elongated trefoiled heads with a trefoil between them. The last but one window to the west is a 19th-century insertion with a square head but similar lower lights; the east window is similar to the others. The south aisle has similar windows to the north aisle, a pointed east window with cusped tracery, and a west window of cinquefoil-headed lights under a flat porch.

The south porch is two storeys, with the ground storey dating to the 14th century and the upper storey to the 16th century. It features a pointed doorway with a 19th-century two-leaf nail-studded door, a chamfered inner arch, a wave-moulded outer arch and returned hoodmould. The upper storey has a three-light mullioned window with hollow-chamfered mullions and surround.

The chancel and aisles are clerestoried with crenellated parapets and crocketed pinnacles. A late 16th-century clerestory features square-headed windows of two Tudor-arch lights with sunken spandrels. A large pointed east window dating to around 1340 has five trefoil-headed lights with flowing tracery and hoodmould terminating in heads. The north aisle has pointed windows of two transomed lights with lower lights similar to those of the nave aisle windows and cusped Y-tracery above; a blocked window to the west; and an east window of two transomed lights under a flat arch with trefoiled heads. The south aisle has similar windows, with the westernmost window consisting of upper lights only above a Tudor arch doorway dated 1578; the east window is similar to that of the north aisle.

The vestry dates to the early to mid-19th century. Its west side has a Tudor-arch door with returned hood mould and a flat arch window with two cinquefoil-headed lights and returned hoodmould.

Interior

The nave arcade dates to around 1250 and features pointed arches with chamfer and roll and fillet moulding, hoodmoulds, and curved heads in the spandrels. The columns have round abaci and double roll-moulded bases. A very tall, pointed and double-chamfered tower arch springs from semi-octagonal engaged columns.

The 13th-century chancel arch was raised by eight feet in 1881. It is a very tall pointed arch with wide fillet moulding and semi-octagonal engaged columns, with a hoodmould terminating in heads.

The low-pitch nave roof dates to 1881. It features cambered and billet-moulded tie beams that are bracketed, two pairs of purlins and a ridge piece, all moulded with curved bosses at the junctions with the rafters. The elaborately carved wall plate incorporates six oak angels from the 16th-century roof, cantilevered out below the tie beams. At clerestorey level are statuettes of saints standing on corbels and canopied.

The early 13th-century chapel arcade has pointed arches with hollow chamfer and roll and fillet moulding, hoodmoulds and carved heads in the spandrels. The cylindrical columns have water-holding bases and undercut capitals.

The 16th-century low pitch chancel roof features cambered tie beams, with the principal ones ovolo-moulded; the others and the two pairs of purlins and ridge piece have wide chamfers.

The porch has a 14th-century stoup with an ogee head in the east wall and a 16th-century oak ceiling with roll-moulded ridge piece and bracketed and panelled tie beams.

The font is dated 1668 and restored 1862, stone and octagonal with moulded base and funnel-shaped bowl. A bowl of a medieval font is preserved in the west tower.

The pulpit dates to 1890 and is stone with a square plan, arcaded sides and heavily moulded lip decorated with fleurons, together with a panelled wooden rear screen and canopy.

An elaborate chancel screen is dated 1778 and is wrought iron with leaf and flower decoration, a scrolled overthrow and finial. It is Dutch in origin, brought from Cape Town.

Choir stalls date to the late 15th century and retain some original carving in front and in the screens behind them. Late 15th-century misericords are decorated with foliage.

Monuments

In the south aisle of the nave: John Hodson (died 1836), a bracketed and pedimented marble wall plaque; John Eginton (died 1752), a bracketed wall plaque with open-base pediment; John Herbert (died 1769), a wall plaque with open-top pediment containing an urn; Sir Edward Littleton (died 1812), an oval wall plaque; Richard Littleton (died 1518) and his wife, an incised alabaster slab within a cusped semi-circular recess in the south wall.

In the chancel: William Wynnesbury (died 1502) and his wife and daughter, an incised alabaster floor slab; Sir Edward Littleton (died 1558) and his two wives Helen and Isabel, an alabaster chest tomb with three recumbent effigies and standing figures on the sides of the chest; Sir Edward Littleton (died 1574) and his wife Alice, an alabaster chest tomb with two recumbent effigies and standing figures on the sides of the chest. These two Littleton tombs are thought to be the work of the Royleys of Burton. Sir Edward Littleton (died 1610) and his wife, and Sir Edward Littleton (died 1629) and his wife, form a two-tier monument with recumbent effigies on both upper and lower chest tombs and below them their kneeling children. It features Corinthian columns below and obelisks above, and is inscribed: "READER IT WAS THOUGHT ENOUGH UPON THE TOMBE OF THAT GREAT CAPTAINE THE ENEMY OF ROME TO WRITE NO MORE BUT (HERE LYES HANNIBAL) LET THIS SUFFICE THEE THEN INSTEAD OF ALL HERE LYE TWO KNIGHTS THE FATHER AND THE SONNE SIR EDWARD AND SIR EDWARD LITTLETON". An incised alabaster slab mounted on the north aisle wall is mid-17th-century and shows kneeling figures of a Littleton family. Sir Edward Littleton (died 1742) is commemorated by a marble wall monument, a bracketed aedicule with foliated pilasters capped by urns, surmounted by an obelisk and sarcophagus, the former capped by an urn.

Stained Glass

The east window dates to 1864 and is by Ward and Hughes. The south aisle has three windows by Ward and Hughes, one by Lavers and Burraud, and one by A. J. Dix. The north aisle has one by A. J. Dix and one by Nicholson.