Church Of St Michael

TM 1938 WOOLVERSTONE WOOLVERSTONE PARK 7/42 Church of St Michael 22.2.55 - II* Church. C14. C15 tower, C16 porch. Extensive restoration of 1862 by Sir G G Scott. Additions and alterations of 1888 by St Aubyn and Wadling for Captain Hugh Berners. Tower of rubble flint and septaria with ashlar dressings and flushwork to buttresses, renewed flushwork battlements: Otherwise, knapped flint with ashlar dressings (exterior walls of original section refaced) except porch of orange brick in English bond with dark brick diapering. Plain tile roofs. Perpendicular style. West tower, south porch, original nave and chancel now form scuth aisle to nave and chancel of 1888 and vestry to north. 2-stage tower on plinth with diagonal off-set buttresses. 5-light west window with Perpendicular tracery with restored mullions. Upper stage off-set on string course. 2-light Tudor-arched belfry opening. Single-light window to south, stair turret to north. String course with fleurons, angle gargoyles, battlement with crocketed pinnacles. Porch: Rendered plinth, diagonal off-set buttresses, 2-light windows with Y-tracery under hoodmoulds to sides. Tudor-arched entrance under hoodmould. Panel above now blank. Moulded tie beam to gable on short corbelled posts with arch braces. Studding and bargeboards to gable. South aisle: 4-light C19 window. Former chancel: priests door and 2 C19 windows. C19 nave, chancel and vestry have 2 and 3-light Perpendicular style windows. Foundation stone set in buttresses on north side of chancel reads: 'Laid by Hugh Berners Captain RN to the Glory of God Feast of St Michael and All Angels 1888'. East end of chancel: Band of flushwork beneath 5-light Perpendicular style window. Interior: Porch has brattished wall plates, cambered moulded tie beams on short posts on carved leaf corbels with arch braces with ornamented spandrels. Moulded beams and chamfered joists. Pointed entrance with continuously-moulded jambs and restored headstops. Tall tower arch, original plank door to stair turret. C19 4-bay arcade on cylindrical piers. Crown-post roof to nave and aisle. Hammer beam roof to chancel. C15 octagonal font on base with supporting lions has panels with alternating lions and angels. C19 Gothic style cover. Piscina to south chapel. C19 fittings include pulpit, rood screen and canopied stone sedilia by Thomas Earp. Vestry contains wall monument with broken segmen- tal pediment with hatchment on Corinthian columns containing plaque with Latin inscription to Phillip Bacon of Shrubland d.1635. Bust to the Ven.Henry Denny Berners (1801-1834), by R Westmacott Jun.,1839.

Listing NGR: TM1901938579