Church of St Michael Archangel

SU 46 SW 1/6

HIGHCLERE Church of St Michael Archangel

(formerly listed as Church of St Michael and All Angels)

16.5.66

II* 1870, by George Gilbert Scott, RA. Built to replace the earlier church of 1692, itself on the medieval site next to Highclere Castle. Chancel of two bays, nave of three bays with a south aisle, (later) porch on the north side, and tower north of the chancel; the style is Early English with plate tracery.

Steep tile roofing, with scalloped bands above the chancel. Walling of flint with stone dressings; stepped coupled buttresses at the corners, plain eaves, cill band to chancel and west wall, generally coupled lancet windows, some with quatrefoils, some with hoodmoulds. The east gable has a wheel window above an elaborate blind arcade, the west gable has a circular opening above two tall lancets. The tower has a shingled broach spire, a bell stage of triple lancets, with coupled stepped buttresses below this level, at each corner.

The interior is plain, with pointed and moulded arches, Early English caps to the two octagonal columns, and detached columns to the arcaded interiors of the chancel windows. There are several monuments from the old church; an elaborate Jacobean Tomb (of Richard Kingsmill) with a recumbent effigy, kneelers, and lettered panels enclosed in a Corinthian Order. In the chancel, the monument of Robert Sawyer (1692) has a classical framework of black and mottled white marble, with Corinthian pilasters, swags enclosing a pedestal, a sarcophagus base, with floral ornament and an urn at the top. A wall monument to the Bishop of Waterford (1773) has a figure by Roubiliac. There are two oval wall plaques to William (1799) and Mary (1783) Coleman, and other classical wall monuments (two of 1720, one of 1740, 1915 and 1933).