Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

Parish church, consecrated in 1735 and refaced around 1860. The original church is attributed to James Gibbs and was built for Thomas, first Lord Foley. The refacing was undertaken by S.W. Daukes for Lord Ward, later first Earl of Dudley. The building has a brick core with Bathstone refacing and a slate roof.

The church is rectangular in plan with shallow projections to the north and south of the east end that form transepts, and a west porch. It is designed in the Baroque style. The exterior features a moulded plinth, rusticated quoins, a listel cornice and balustraded parapet with urn finials at the corners and intermediate positions. Windows have keyed semicircular arches with moulded impost strings, recessed panels to pilasters, and bracketed sills.

The west entrance elevation rises two storeys over three bays, with a central break defined by quoins. A square bell tower rises above, topped with an open arcaded octagonal cupola. The entrance is sheltered by a pedimented porch supported on Tuscan columns. Ground-floor windows have slightly cambered keyed heads. The south lateral elevation has a 1:3:1 arrangement of bays, with the projecting eastern bay and western bay defined by quoins. The east end bay and the central three bays have arched windows with keyed hoodmoulds, bracketed sills and pilasters in arched recesses, with keyed hoods continuing from label strings. A Venetian window occupies the east end.

Interior

The interior contains a west gallery and central organ housing richly decorated in Italian manner. Gilded rococo-style stuccoed ornament is arranged in panels to the walls and window reveals. The coved ceiling features triangular penetrations above the windows in papier-mâché with similar gilded enrichment. The ceiling is painted by Antonio Bellucci; the main central painting depicts the Ascension, flanked by the Nativity and the Deposition, with a further twenty small medallions also decorating the ceiling. The stained glass windows are signed by Joshua Price of York, dated 1719–1721, from designs by Francesco Sleter (or Slater).

The ceiling paintings and stained glass were acquired by the second Lord Foley from the chapel of the Duke of Chandos at Canons in 1747. The gilded ornament in stucco and papier-mâché were copied from the originals at Canons, which were executed by the stuccadore Pietro Martire Baquitti.

The wooden pews and pulpit are attributed to Daukes; the pulpit incorporates a piece of 18th-century stair-rail. The font is white marble by James Forsyth, with a circular bowl supported by three kneeling figures. The organ case in the west gallery was also acquired from Canons.

The north transept contains a monument signed by Rysbrack, dated around 1743, commemorating the first Lord Foley. It is constructed of white marble base surmounted by a grey marble sarcophagus and obelisk with seven figures in classical dress. A reclining figure of Lord Foley with a woman and child appears above the sarcophagus, flanked by allegorical figures and two further figures above on draped support with flanking urns. Heraldic ornament ornaments the summit of the obelisk. The south transept contains a tablet commemorating Thomas Foley, died 1677, in black and white marble with two columns and a swan-necked pediment over a segmental one, with a central inscription panel.

An earlier church stood a short distance further west of the present church. A gate pier at the western driveway is reputed to be a surviving section of this earlier building.