Parish Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels

This parish church at Abington Pigotts displays work spanning from the 12th century to the 20th century. Fragments of 12th-century carved stone survive, along with the roof line of the 12th-century nave. The 14th-century rebuild included a nave with north and south doorways and a south porch, together with an early 14th-century chancel. Late 14th-century nave windows were added, and the 15th-century saw the construction of the tower and replacement of the nave roof. The south porch was repaired in 1582. The nave roof was slated in 1865, at which point a doom painting was lost through exposure. A vestry was added to the north of the nave in 1884. The tower was repaired in 1896 and 1924. The chancel was restored and its roof replaced around 1930 under the architect C.W. Oldrid Scott. In 1975, the chancel was rebuilt.

The walls are constructed of flint rubble with clunch and limestone dressings; the north wall of the nave is cement rendered. The roofs are tiled and slated.

The south elevation features a three-stage west tower with a defaced moulded plinth and embattled parapet. The belfry window consists of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil. The tower has a steep pyramidal roof surmounted by a weather-vane dated 1923. The nave has an embattled parapet and three late 15th or early 16th-century windows, each of two tall cinquefoiled lights in four-centred heads with moulded labels. The south doorway has a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders and retains its original door. The south porch, marked by a dated stone of 1582, features a two-centred archway of two orders with responds bearing attached shafts, moulded caps and bases, and a moulded label with defaced head stops. Its gable wall displays a ball pendant and cusped barge boards. The chancel has a parapet gable and two early 14th-century windows that have been reset and restored; these windows contain two trefoiled lights with foiled heads in two-centred arches with labels and head stops. A priest's doorway, two-centred and chamfered, provides access.

The interior contains a tower arch of two-centred form with three chamfered orders, with the inner order carried on moulded responds with capitals and bases. The restored nave roof comprises three bays with three original tie beams that are cambered and hollow chamfered, supported on wall posts with curved braces and traceried spandrels. The wall posts are supported on carved stone corbels depicting angels and blank shields. The chancel arch is early 14th-century, of two-centred two-chamfered form with semi-octagonal responds, mutilated caps and bases.

The font is a modern copy of the original now in Royston Church. An early 17th-century font cover, octagonal in plan with an ogee profile and acorn finial, survives. A 13th-century piscina on the south wall of the nave has a shouldered head with plain chamfered reveal and multi-foiled bowl. A restored 15th-century screen is present. In the north-east angle of the nave, the upper doorway to the former rood-loft is visible; the lower doorway is hidden by the pulpit. The 17th-century pulpit, reading desk and clerks desk incorporate old panelling and fragments of the rood screen, including three carved panels possibly of Flemish origin; candle brackets are mounted on the reading desk. The doors are 14th-century in date: the north doorway retains vertical V-grooved boards with five rails, while the south doorway has vertical fielded boards with moulded fillet and a rear frame of horizontal and diagonal rails. 15th-century seating survives. Glass fragments in the nave windows are 15th-century.

Brasses and indents are present in the chancel. A floor slab of Purbeck marble features an indent for a figure and inscription. Another Purbeck marble slab bears a figure of a man in a long ermine-trimmed coat with separate brasses of eight sons and eight daughters, possibly identified to the Peeche family according to W Cole. A further Purbeck marble slab has indents for two figures. Two slabs with indents are present in the nave.

Monuments include four 17th-century panels set as a dado in the east wall of the chancel: to John Piggot Esq (died 1613), to Elizabeth Lynn wife of Henry Lynn (died 1665), to Henry Lynn (died 1662), and to John Piggott (died 1617). In the chancel are two limestone slabs with Latin inscriptions: one to Richard (died 1782) and his wife Maria (died 1773), and one to Maria and William Piggott (died 1627). A wall monument in white and black marble commemorates George Granado Graham Foster Pigott (died 1878), Cuthbert Graham Foster Pigott (died 1849), and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Graham Foster Pigott (died 1901). A white marble panel with a portrait bust in high relief of William Foster Pigott (died 1827) is by the sculptor Peter Roun of Portland Road, London. A wall monument in grey and white marbles with an obelisk, weeping willow and portrait medallion commemorates Mary, wife of William Foster Pigott, dated 1816 and bearing the mark 'Bacon ft LONDON'. A limestone slab in the nave commemorates Stowell Cay, relict of Henry Bould Cay esq and of Granado Pigott esq (died 1824). 12th-century coffin lids are housed in the south porch. Three hatchments are in the chancel and one in the nave.