Church of St Michael is a Grade II* listed building in the North Norfolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 October 1960. A Medieval Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Michael
- WRENN ID
- drifting-fireplace-candle
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- North Norfolk
- Constituency
- North Norfolk MP: Steff Aquarone (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 October 1960
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Michael, Church Street, Plumstead, NR11 7LG
- OS grid reference
- TG 132 348
- Coordinates
- 52.86926, 1.16701
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Michael is a parish church largely dating to the 12th century, with a chancel constructed around 1300. A south aisle from the 14th century was demolished before the 19th century, and a clerestory and west tower were added in the 15th century. The church underwent restoration in 1873. The north wall features 12th-century herringbone masonry constructed from iron conglomerate, retaining original quoining where it joins the chancel and tower. The remainder of the exterior is built with knapped and unknapped flint, clunch ashlar dressings, Lincolnshire Limestone elements, partially rendered, and covered by a gabled 19th-century tile roof with fishscale bands. The church comprises a nave and chancel with a west tower.
The chancel contains a three-light perpendicular-style east window (likely from 1873) and, on the south side, a two-light window with trefoil heads, alongside a one-light window dating to around 1300, flanked by offset buttresses. An organ chamber and additional buttresses were added on the north side around 1873. The nave has two geometrical-style two-light windows. A gabled north porch, with cinquefoiled lights and a pointed arched doorway, and a pointed-arched doorway with a hood mould are both features from around 1873. The three-stage west tower features angle buttresses with blank tracery, a circa 1873 west window, a stair projection to the north, two-light cinquefoiled belfry windows with perpendicular tracery, and gargoyles atop a flushwork parapet with crocketed pinnacles.
Inside, the chancel includes a trefoil-headed piscina and drop sedilia dating back to approximately 1300, and remains of an Easter Sepulchre with modern colouring to fragmentary vaulting. The 14th-century south arcade consists of three orders with hollow chamfers, supported by octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The 15th-century tower arch has a wave-moulded outer arch set on polygonal responds with embattled capitals. The chancel features a mid-19th-century hammerbeam roof with 15th-century elements, while the nave boasts a waggon roof with scissor braces and arch-braced principles, also incorporating 15th-century components.
Notable fittings include an altar, reredos, litany desk, and sanctuary dedicated as a memorial to Captain Whiteside, who died in 1916; pews, a pulpit, a lectern, and a west screen, all dating to around 1873. An octagonal stone font contains a memorial to Theophila Fleming, who died in 1743, and the north wall displays Royal Arms of George VI. Stained glass includes 15th-century figures in the east window and 16th–17th-century Flemish glass in the south windows, transferred from Catton Hall, Norwich, in 1952.
Local climate
Church of St Michael receives an average of 780 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 61% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 68% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 7 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 2 transactions since 2020
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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