Church of St Michael Archangel is a Grade II* listed building in the Basingstoke and Deane local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 May 1966. Church.
Church of St Michael Archangel
- WRENN ID
- swift-cinder-aspen
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Basingstoke and Deane
- Constituency
- North West Hampshire MP: Kit Malthouse (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 16 May 1966
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Michael Archangel, Highclere
- OS grid reference
- SU 440 602
- Coordinates
- 51.34008, -1.36946
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Michael Archangel, built in 1870 by George Gilbert Scott, RA, is a Grade II* listed building located next to Highclere Castle. It was constructed to replace an earlier church from 1692, which was situated on a medieval site. The church features a chancel with two bays, a nave with three bays, a south aisle, a later porch on the north side, and a tower located north of the chancel. The architectural style is Early English, characterized by plate tracery.
The exterior is notable for its steep tile roofing, which has scalloped bands above the chancel. The walls are made of flint with stone dressings, and there are stepped coupled buttresses at the corners. The church has plain eaves and a cill band on the chancel and west wall. The windows are generally coupled lancet types, some featuring quatrefoils and hoodmoulds. The east gable displays a wheel window above an intricate blind arcade, while the west gable has a circular opening above two tall lancets. The tower is topped with a shingled broach spire and includes a bell stage with triple lancets, supported by coupled stepped buttresses at each corner.
Inside, the church has a plain design with pointed and moulded arches. The two octagonal columns feature Early English capitals, and there are detached columns in the arcaded interiors of the chancel windows. Several monuments from the old church are present, including an elaborate Jacobean tomb of Richard Kingsmill, which features a recumbent effigy, kneelers, and lettered panels within a Corinthian Order. In the chancel, there is a monument to Robert Sawyer from 1692, framed in black and mottled white marble with Corinthian pilasters, swags, a pedestal, a sarcophagus base, floral ornamentation, and an urn on top. Additionally, there is a wall monument to the Bishop of Waterford from 1773, which includes a figure by Roubiliac, along with two oval wall plaques for William (1799) and Mary (1783) Coleman, and other classical wall monuments dating from 1720, 1740, 1915, and 1933.
Local climate
Church of St Michael Archangel receives an average of 770 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 63% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 55% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 64% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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