Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

An Anglican church built in 1758 with a chancel added in 1887. The church was designed by William Robinson of the Board of Works and supervised by William Baker. The chancel was designed with Early Gothic Revival style and Perpendicular details.

The building is constructed of ashlar with a copper-clad roof to the nave and a tile roof to the chancel. It comprises a chancel with a north vestry and south organ loft, a 5-bay nave, a west tower with flanking 2-storey porches.

The chancel features a high plinth, continuous sill course and hood mould, a top cornice and coped parapet embattled to north and south. The east window has 6 lights with a fleuron to the hood. The north and south walls have 2-light windows. The gabled organ loft has a 2-light transomed window. The vestry is gabled to the east with a 3-light east window set over steps to a basement entrance, a 2-light square-headed north window flanked by Tudor-headed entrances with enriched hinges and cusped lights. A lateral stack rises to the chancel.

The nave has windows to 2 levels, a plain plinth, a platt band over the lower level, an upper level sill course, and a top coved cornice with an embattled parapet continued to the east gable with pinnacles to the angles. The windows have Y-tracery; the lower windows are set with label moulds.

The 4-stage tower breaks forward from the main body of the church. A pointed entrance has a hollow moulding between simple shafts with splayed bases; a similar moulding frames the arch. Paired 3-fielded-panel doors with an original handle and glazed timber panel above lead into the tower. A plaque above the door bears the date inscribed under a label mould. The 2nd stage has a quatrefoil window under a segmental label mould and a platt band above. The 3rd stage contains round clock faces in simple frames. The top stage has Y-tracery louvred bell-openings on sills with cusped aprons, a lozenge frieze, an embattled parapet, and angle pinnacles with wind vanes.

The north and south porches have pointed windows with label moulds and upper Y-tracery windows. The north and south entrances have triple-arched moulds.

Interior

The chancel has an arch-braced collar roof with tracery. An arch opens to the south organ loft. The north vestry door and a credence shelf in a recess with a tracery head are notable features. The chancel arch has responds with 15th-century-style panelling to the tops.

The 19th-century nave roof comprises arch-braced tie beams with a raised centre and waggon boarding. Side galleries rest on moulded timber posts with an enriched frieze and panelling. The tower ceiling features beams and cornices.

The chancel contains panelling across the east wall, linenfold panelling with cusped panels above and brattishing. The reredos has traceried canopies and brattishing. The stalls have linenfold panelling, matched by a similar case to the organ (1888) designed by Sir Charles Nicholson. The altar rail has tracery. An 18th-century chancel rail features turned balusters and a lozenge frieze. Minton tiles are laid throughout.

The nave retains original high box pews with H-hinges to the doors and painted number panels. A high timber pulpit by Sir Charles Nicholson has linenfold panelling on a baluster and a winding stair to the rear. An 18th-century baluster font has a gadrooned bowl.

Notable paintings include a depiction of St Michael by W. Beechey RA in the north gallery and a Transfiguration after Raphael hanging over the west door. The vestry has good glazed tiles to the walls and timber screens.

Monuments

A tablet to Thomas Unett (d. 1809) and others on the south aisle east wall is in Greek Revival style with a stele form. A tablet to Ellen Nicholls (d. 1815) with an urn is on the north aisle east wall. A tablet to J.E. Leveson Jervis (d. 1885) on the west wall features Corinthian pilasters and an apron with Jervis arms, crest, military badge and naval trophies. A monument to John Jervis, Earl St Vincent (d. 1823), designed by Whitelaw, has a long inscription, Jervis arms to the apron, crest with naval trophies, and a bust by F. Chantrey. A brass commemorates Thomas Crompton (d. 1619). The tower contains an arched recess with two 13th-century effigies from the old church, depicting a lady and a canon.

Stained Glass

The east window contains 1880s stained glass. The chancel north and south windows display glass by C.E. Kempe (1897 and 1901). Kempe glass appears in all of the aisle windows and most of the gallery windows, with other contemporary glass by the same artist throughout.

This is a good example of an 18th-century church with many surviving fittings and an excellent collection of Kempe glass. Nikolaus Pevsner described it as "a remarkably early piece of Gothic Revival without any Rococo frills".