Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A church designed in 1908 by John Samuel Alder and built in 1909–10, constructed in limestone and Bath stone with a red-tiled roof. The building is situated on St. Michael's Road.

The church is designed in Late Decorated style with Perpendicular features. The plan comprises a nave of 6 bays with aisles and clerestory, a 3-bay chancel, a transept and Lady Chapel on the north side, and a transept and vestries on the south side. The north-west corner has the base of a tower which was never completed.

The aisles are divided into bays by buttresses, each bay containing a 4-light window with varying moulded and cusped tracery designs. Single light windows appear in each eastern bay. The west bay of the south aisle forms a porch with a richly moulded doorway beneath a gable facing west. The west elevation of the nave features a large 7-light window grouped 2–3–2 with elaborate flowing tracery above, flanked by gabletted buttresses. A three-sided apse with 2-light windows houses a baptistery below the west window. The clerestory has 3-light traceried windows in each bay, except at the west end near the base of the tower. The chancel is lower than the nave and has angle buttresses terminating in gablets at the corners. The east end displays a large 5-light east window (2–1–2) with Decorated tracery and a circular window with trefoiled tracery in the gable. Between the chancel and north transept sits a small Lady Chapel of 2 bays with a semi-circular apse, its bays divided by buttresses and each containing a 2-light window. The south side contains vestries with plain walls without buttresses and simple rectangular windows.

The interior features arcades of 6 bays with quatrefoil pillars on moulded bases. Shafts rise from the springing of the arches to carry the principals of the panelled timber vaults. The aisle windows have flattened pointed arches. A fine wooden screen spans the chancel arch. The chancel floor is raised 2 steps higher than the nave and paved with squares of green and white marble. The chancel comprises 3 bays, each pierced by a richly moulded arch. The two eastern bays are equal in width with a 2-light clerestory window in each; the west bay is wider with a large arch opening into the transepts and stone blind arcading on the wall above. The apsidal Lady Chapel has a vaulted timber roof splayed at the east end, with a sanctuary floor paved in green and white marble.

The church contains a number of important fittings. The altar is of oak with a panelled and traceried front, dating to circa 1910. The reredos is oak with a central niche containing a carving of the Ascension flanked by two pairs of cinquefoiled ogee-headed niches and an outer pair of canopied niches, also circa 1910, with carved stalls of the same date. An octagonal oak pulpit features small buttresses at the angles and open traceried arches in each face, dating to 1910. The screen of 1928 and lectern of 1929 are both by F.E. Howard. An oak screen to the Lady Chapel dates to 1921. The font is a small stone octagonal design from 1891 that came from St Thomas Charterhouse when that church was demolished in 1909. The organ is by J.W. Walker, dated 1931, with woodwork front dating to the period 1910–13.

The stained glass dates from the 1920s and 1930s. Of particular note is the east window, depicting 'Our Lord In Glory above the New Jerusalem', created by J.C. Bewsey circa 1928.