Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Parish church, built 1871–2 by H. Woodyer at the expense of R.A. Smith of Goldings. The building is constructed of concrete faced in snecked Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, with a timber porch, Broseley tiled roof, and shingled spire. It exemplifies the Gothic Revival style.

The church comprises a four-bay nave with a slightly narrower and shorter chancel, a south porch, north vestry, and organ bay. It is built on a slope such that the east end is raised.

The three-light east window features Geometrical tracery in a pointed head with hood mould and string course at sill level stepped down to the sides. A double plinth supports relief panels. Two-stage diagonal buttresses with trefoiled gablets rise to a coped gable parapet with ridge cross and shaped kneelers.

The south elevation of the chancel has a central two-stage buttress with, to its right, a gablet over a two-light ovolo-moulded window with a quatrefoil in vesica at the pointed head and returned hood mould. To the left are two lancets with trefoils at their heads. A plinth and string course run below the sill level, and rainwater heads are dated 1872. A projecting stone course marks the close eaves.

The north chancel has a lancet with trefoil at the head and a string course below. The taller nave has kneelers to its coped east gable parapet. The south elevation displays two, one, and three-light windows with Geometrical tracery and hollow-moulded surrounds, with a two-stage buttress to the east and a smaller buttress at centre.

The south porch has an inner double-moulded pointed arch and a plank door with strap hinges. Its low ashlar base rises to open traceried timber panels with braces to a cambered tie beam. Quatrefoil panels extend up to the collar with upper trefoils, and trefoiled bargeboards rise to a steep gable. Each return contains two triple-cusped arcades with turned shafts and pierced quatrefoils.

The unbuttressed west end features three lancets with trefoils at their heads, roll-moulded surrounds, and intermediate buttresses. Upper two lights and a slit opening rise toward kneelers and a coped gable parapet. A belfry with paired louvred openings sits on the ridge to the west, crowned by a broached spire with weathervane.

The north elevation of the nave contains two, two, and one-light windows matching those to the south, with a two-stage buttress to the right of centre. A catslide roof runs from the chancel over the vestry and organ bay, extending onto the nave with a canted angle to the west. The base is battered with a roll-moulded string course. Steps lead up to a door flanked by four lancets to the left (with two tiny gables in the roof) and trefoiled slits to the right, with a two-light window at the east end.

The interior features a pointed chancel arch with inner chamfer stopped on shaped corbels at the springing, and continuous outer ovolo moulding to broach stop. The west bay of the nave has timber arched braces rising from semi-octagonal responds with bases and brattished capitals to a cambered tie beam, with queen posts bearing engaged shafts and curved braces to the collar supporting the belfry. The main nave roof exhibits arched braces, curved collars with crown posts and angled struts, clasped purlins, and curved windbraces. The chancel roof has moulded arched braces to collars and moulded purlins. Pointed arched vestry doors have decorative strap hinges. Ball flower ornament appears in the hollow moulding of the nave and roll moulding of the chancel. Window embrasures feature cusped hollow-moulded heads in the nave to north and south, engaged shafts in the chancel to north and south, and cusped moulding to the east.

Chancel wall mosaics created between 1901 and 1912 by J.P. Hutchinson of J. Powell and Sons depict blue and green angels and ornament. The reredos, made by J. Powell and Sons in 1901, has a central cusped niche with flanking mosaic angels and saints set behind eight verde antico columns with alabaster bases and stiff-leaf capitals. Minton floor tiles line the floor. Communion rails feature turned timber balusters with quatrefoiled lattice ironwork. A Gothic octagonal pulpit stands in the nave, and a font to the west has a shafted round stem, octagonal bowl with quatrefoil panels, and a tall Gothic timber font cover. The organ, built in 1872 by J.W. Walker, displays illuminated pipes.

Stained glass throughout the church is largely by Morris and Company. In the chancel, the east window shows the Nativity by Burne-Jones with flanking musical angels by Morris; the south window contains the Annunciation by Morris, and King David and Miriam by Burne-Jones; the north window features Saint Michael by Morris—all dated 1872. In the nave, the south windows contain Christ and Angels (1896), Saint Peter (1876), and Virgin and Christ (1917), all by Burne-Jones, the last made by J.H. Dearle. The west windows show Noah and Saint Phillip by Ford Madox Brown and Saint John the Baptist by Burne-Jones, all on clear glass grounds with tracery by P. Webb, dated 1872. The north windows include Saint Cecilia (1929) by C. Parsons, Road to Emmaus (1928) by D. Strachan, and Wise Virgins (1888) by S. Image for Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Below two west windows stands a beaten bronze memorial to Lieutenant Colonel W.A. Smith by A.J. Danielli.