Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Parish church of medieval origin with extensive rebuilding and restorations around 1800 and circa 1869. The building comprises a 14th-century nave, 19th-century chancel, north aisle, north porch and a lean-to south vestry. The west tower dates from the 14th or 15th century but was substantially restored in the 19th century. The walls are constructed from flint rubble, seataria, ashlar and stone pressings, with red plain tiled roofs and stone parapet verges.

The chancel features a moulded plinth and band below the windows, with angle buttresses. The east window has five cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery above, a moulded two-centred head and a moulded label with angel head stops. The north and south walls each have windows with two trefoiled lights, tracery above, two-centred arches and labels with foliate stops—one on the south wall and two on the north wall. A small 20th-century angled vestry with a hipped roof extends from the west of the south wall at the chancel eaves, featuring a two-centred arch doorway facing east and two small windows with two-centred heads facing south.

The nave's south wall is buttressed at the angles and between windows. The central and western windows have two trefoiled ogee lights with quatrefoils above, two-centred heads and labels. The eastern window has three trefoiled ogee lights with tracery, a two-centred head and label. A lean-to vestry plastered with three gargoyles below the eaves stands to the west of the windows. A 20th-century four-light window has been inserted in the south wall, and a 20th-century plank and muntin door is positioned in the west wall.

The west tower stands in four stages with angle buttresses and a 19th-century parapet featuring wheel pattern flint and stone flushwork with moulded stone coping. Moulded bands run below the parapet and all windows, with a moulded plinth throughout. Gargoyles decorate the parapet band, which is enriched with ball flowers. The bell chamber has louvred windows on each face, each containing two cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery, moulded two-centred heads and stopped labels. The third and second stages of the west face each have a chamfered two-centred arch window, while the first stage west window has two cinquefoiled lights with tracery, a chamfered two-centred arch and stopped label. A St Michael weathervane from the dismantled church of St Michael, Manningtree, sits atop the tower. The bell chamber is distinguished by sunk chamfered angles enriched with ball flowers.

The north aisle is buttressed at the angles and between windows, with a moulded plinth. Three windows, each of two trefoiled lights with tracery, chamfered two-centred heads and labels with foliate stops, punctuate the wall. A gabled porch stands to the west of these windows, featuring a stone parapet verge, moulded plinth and buttresses in-line with the north face. The outer archway is a sunk chamfered and moulded four-centred arch with attached shafts with moulded capitals and broached bases, topped by a label with head stops. The side wall windows of the porch each have three cinquefoiled lights with tracery, square heads and labels.

The porch interior has a roof with ashlar posts and collars to each rafter pair and stone mouldings to the windows. The north doorway features a chamfered and moulded two-centred arch with a vertically boarded door.

Interior

The chancel interior has a four-bay roof with moulded wall plates and moulded arched braces to collars with king posts above a 19th-century coloured tiled floor. The windows contain 19th-century stained glass. A low cill window on the south wall serves as a sedilia. Set into the eastern jamb is a cinquefoiled two-centred arch piscina. The chancel contains 19th-century wooden altar rails and 19th-century poppyheads to choir stalls carved with emblems of the four evangelists. A painting of "Christ and the Children" by John Constable, dated circa 1804, formerly on the south wall, has been removed to Christchurch Mansion Museum, Ipswich, for safe keeping. A two-centred arch doorway with a segmental arch above leads to the south vestry. A 19th-century chancel arch, moulded with a two-centred form, is supported on each side by three shafts with moulded capitals and bases, featuring carved angel and St Michael corbels.

The nave retains an original four-bay crown post roof with four-armed crown posts, moulded capitals and bases, moulded tie beams and moulded wall plates. A 19th-century wooden octagonal pulpit is carved with a depiction of the Glastonbury Thorn. A medieval stained glass panel in the eastern window of the south wall depicts St Edmund and a bishop. This window features a low cill and serves as a sedilia, with a piscina set in the eastern jamb. A round-headed doorway to the south vestry has organ pipes above. The north arcade comprises four bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders, resting on circular columns with four fillets, moulded capitals and square bases. The south aisle has a lean-to roof of four bays with wall posts supported by square, moulded corbels. A piscina adjacent to the eastern respond of the south arcade has a trefoiled head and blocked drain. A floor slab near the north doorway bears indents of shields of arms and a cross. A floor slab by the south doorway shows dates of 1750–1760 visible, though names are now covered by the organ. A wall memorial commemorates Rev H R Cole M A, Rector from 1892 to 1934. The coat of arms of George III appears above the west tower porch.

An octagonal font with a carved rim and soffit features quatrefoils within roundels to the panels and two-light tracery under two-centred arches to the stem, with a moulded base.

The tower arch beneath the tower is a chamfered two-centred arch with angled jambs and moulded bases. A 19th-century moulded two-centred arched doorway opens to the stair turret. The west window contains 19th-century stained glass. A bell inscribed "Miles Graye Made Me, 1651" is recorded as being present in the tower.

Historical notes record that this font differs from the description given by Nikolaus Pevsner in his 1962 work on Suffolk.