Church Of St Mary And St Michael

Church of St. Mary and St. Michael

Parish church of Mistley with Manningtree, built circa 1868-70. The architects were Wadmore and Baker of Great St. Helens, London. The builder was Hawkins of Monks Eleigh, with stone and marble work executed by Messrs. Chinnock and Co., Ipswich. The church is constructed of Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings and red tiled roofs.

The exterior features carved stone corbels to all eaves. The chancel is apsidal. A plinth and band run below the windows. The main body has 7 trefoiled windows with 2-centred heads and foliate stops to labels, with 2 quatrefoiled roundels to the south west above the lean-to south vestry. The south vestry has a similar east window, a buttress to the angle, a small light to the south wall, and a Caernarvon head to the doorway. The nave has a buttress to the southwest angle. The west window comprises 2 pairs of trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over, a cusped roundel under a 2-centred arch with stopped label, and a small trefoil to the apex. A gargoyle projects from the north gable angle.

The clerestorey contains 5 southern and 4 northern windows, each with 2 trefoiled lights, a trefoil over, and 2-centred heads. The south aisle features buttressing between windows and 4 trefoiled 3-light windows with 3 roundels over and 2-centred arches. A similar south wall window has one roundel and 2 pointed trefoils. A gabled south porch has stone coping and cross finial with angle buttresses. It features a moulded 4-centred arch with outer mouldings resting on chamfered jambs and inner mouldings on attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases, label with foliate stops. Above is a carved cinquefoil with a carved head and flowers to the cusping. Four pierced lights with shaped heads appear to each return. The south doorway has an arch similar to the porch with king and queen head stops to the label.

The north aisle is similar in treatment. An apsidal north organ chamber has trefoiled windows. The north west tower rises in 4 stages, with the lower 3 buttressed to the western angles and an angle stair turret to the north east. The tower has a plinth. The west face shows a lower 2-light window with quatrefoil and label with foliate stops, a single light with similar label to the second stage, a light over, a north door similar to the south door, and 3 small lights to the stair turret. A splayed base rises to the fourth stage, which has angle pilasters to each face and corbelling above double trefoiled sounding louvres with moulded capitals, bases and rings to side and central shafts, pierced quatrefoil over. A moulded label with stops and gargoyles to the eaves angles complete this stage, with a dentilled cornice above. A splayed base supports an octagonal spire. Gables to each compass face have 2-centred arches with moulded capitals, bases and rings to attached shafts, with smaller similar gables over. A weathervane crowns the apex.

Interior

The north porch has a stone vaulted ceiling with green man and leaf bosses. The chancel features a ribbed apsidal roof painted red and gold, with foliate carved corbels. Shafts with foliate capitals support the moulded cornice. Labels with foliate stops surmount the 7 stained glass windows. A piscina with chamfered 2-centred arch, label with foliate stops and round drain is present, along with a similar double sedilia with moulded capital and base to the central shaft.

A carved and painted reredos decorates the east wall. The organ case contains ornate carvings, some reputed to be by Grinling Gibbons. The organ and case, made for Worcester Cathedral in 1667, were presented in 1879 by Reverend L.G. Hayne, Mus.D., who had built an organ for the music room at Eton when he was Succentor there, before succeeding his father as Rector of Mistley with Bradfield in 1871. This organ was reputed to be the largest in the world at that time and required ten of the largest railway trucks available to transport it from Eton to Bradfield. The present organs at both Bradfield and Mistley were subsequently built from it. Reverend Hayne composed the hymn tunes St. Celia, Buckland and St. Lawrence.

Carved choir stalls are present, along with carved and traceried panelling to the south wall erected in memory of Corporal John Tipping (died 26 November 1914). Wrought iron and moulded wood altar rails and a wrought iron chancel screen are featured. A moulded 2-centred chancel arch is supported by 3 black marble shafts with foliate carved capitals standing on carved corbels attached to the jambs.

The nave roof spans 5 bays with carved corbels supporting wall posts and arched braces to alternate scissor-braced trusses, with arched braces to double side purlins. An ornately carved stone octagonal pulpit of circa 1870 has black angle shafts with moulded capitals, each face adorned with a coloured marble roundel. A brass eagle lectern is present.

The north and south aisles each span 5 bays with circular columns having moulded capitals and bases and moulded 2-centred arches. The font, dated circa 1870 and a gift of Janet Norman, is circular with an alabaster bowl carved with flowers to the soffit. It has 3 serpentine support shafts, a moulded base, and an octagonal plinth with inscription in encaustic tiles. A font from the Mistley Georgian Church is placed in the entrance porch.

Memorials to the Rigby, Rivers and Norman families from the Mistley Georgian Church appear on the west wall. The north wall carries a memorial to Thomas Osgood, a fuller burnt at Manningtree during the Marian persecution on 15 June 1555, erected by inhabitants in 1748. The south wall bears a memorial to Thomas Tusser of Rivenhall, who resided at Braham Hall, Cattawade and wrote the Poetical Treatise '500 Points of Good Husbandry' (died London 1580, aged 65), with a tablet erected at the expense of the late Mr. George Blencowe. A floor slab to Jhone Boner from 1533, originally from Mistley Heath Church, lies by the south door. Above the south door are the Royal Arms dated 1816-1837, also from Manningtree Church.

The church contains 6 bells, one cast by Thomas Bridges and Thomas Gardiner in 1747, the others by Bowells of Ipswich in 1898. A plaque in the north porch records that the church and organ were restored between 1962 and 1969 at a cost of £13,000. Following the union of Manningtree and Mistley in 1967, the church's dedication was changed to St. Mary and St. Michael. The former Manningtree Church is now demolished except for a wall remnant, while only low ruins remain of Mistley Heath Church. Of the Mistley Georgian Church, only Mistley Towers survive.