Parish Church of St Michael is a Grade I listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 November 1959. A C12 Church.
Parish Church of St Michael
- WRENN ID
- roaming-ashlar-peregrine
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Dorset
- Constituency
- South Dorset MP: Lloyd Hatton (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 November 1959
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Parish Church of St Michael, Steeple with Tyneham
- OS grid reference
- SY 911 808
- Coordinates
- 50.62753, -2.12651
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Parish Church of St Michael is a historic church with origins dating back to the 12th century. It was enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries and underwent restoration, including the rebuilding of the chancel around 1855. The church features stone walls and stone slate roofs with coped gables. Its layout includes a nave, chancel, north transept, south vestry, south porch, and a west tower.
The tower, built in the 16th century, has two stages and a string course, with a projecting stair turret on the north side and a plain parapet. The belfry has 2-light mullioned windows with stone louvres, and the west doorway is blocked, with a large traceried window above it. The south porch was added around 1855, while the vestry, originally a chapel, dates back to the 16th century. The south wall of the nave features three 15th-century square-headed 2-light windows and one high-level window at the west end. The south doorway, dating from the 12th century, has two orders with plain imposts and square jambs.
The north transept, built in the 17th century, includes a 4-centred arched doorway in the east wall, which displays the Coat of Arms of Lawrence quartering Washington. It also has 3-light square-headed windows. The north wall of the nave contains one lancet window and a blocked doorway. Inside, the nave features a plastered barrel vault with moulded ribs and bosses, which include the renewed Coats of Arms of Lawrence quartering Washington. Other roofs in the church are from the 19th century. The font is from the 13th century, and the altar rails are early 19th century. There are two bells on the tower floor, one from the 16th century and the other from the 17th century.
The Lawrence family, who have been Lords of the Manor since the 16th century, married into the Washington family in 1381, and their Coat of Arms incorporates the Stars and Stripes. Surrounding the churchyard is a stone boundary wall, which contains several 18th and 19th-century headstones.
Local climate
Parish Church of St Michael receives an average of 770 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 64% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 75% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 9 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 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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Nearby listed buildings
- Four Table Tombs, Two Raised Coffin Lid Monuments and Five Stone Coffin Lids Immediately South of the Tower of Parish Church
- The Old Rectory
- The Manor House, Including the Wall and Gate Piers Extending North West from the South West End of the Main Block
- Farm Buildings South of Manor Farm House
- Manor Farm House
- Steeple Leaze Farm House
- Blackmanston Farm House
- Blackmanston Farm Cottages
- Bridge Over Stream North of Blackmanston Farm
- Barn South East of Blackmanston Farm House