Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

An important Anglican parish church of the 13th to 15th centuries, built of flint and limestone with some chequerwork, and sarsen and limestone ashlar to the tower. The building has lead and slate roofs and comprises a nave with aisles, transepts, a chancel with north and south chapels, a tall south porch (formerly two-storey with an infill chamber between porch and transept), and a west tower.

The south elevation displays four-light Tudor arched windows, and three-light cusped windows to the clerestory. Three-light Perpendicular windows light the transepts and the east end of the chancel side chapels, while the chancel itself has lancet windows, triple-light to the east end. The aisles and nave walls are crenellated. The west tower was erected in 1460 by Richard Goddard and comprises three stages with large angle buttresses decorated with crocketed triangular projections. The tower's west door has a four-centred arch with two casement mouldings and a label with figured terminals. Above it is a two-stage four-light window with flanking vaulted and crocketed niches. The bell stage features quatrefoil pierced transennae in two cusped stages. The panelled parapet has grotesque gargoyles but no pinnacles. A bronze bench mark is present.

Internally, the nave of four bays dates to circa 1200 and has chalkstone columns with drum capitals and circular abaci, supporting pointed arches of two chamfered orders—the inner order of the westernmost bays is half round. The south side is decorated with horizontal zig-zag and lobed ornamentation. The transepts date to mid-15th century and have attached columns between hollow chamfers. The chancel comprises one open bay and an east sanctuary with lancets.

The nave roof is low-pitched with a higher roof added above by William Butterfield between 1863 and 1867, covering eight and a half bays with moulded ties, intermediate principals and purlins, and boarding over rafters. Similar roofs were applied to the north aisle, transepts, and both chancel chapels; the southern chapel's roof is ceiled between the purlins. A rood stair occupies the north-east pier of the crossing, with brackets for figures. The outer face of the south nave door is round-headed, decorated with horizontal zig-zag and elementary dog-tooth, and has restored nook shafts.

The north chapel features a squint to the High Altar, a damaged piscina, and an ogee-headed niche to the left of the east window containing original red paint. The south chapel includes a vestry enclosed with 18th-century panelling. The bay between the south transept and porch, now used as a children's corner, has a panelled intrados to the aisle and transept and a corbelled stair to the former upper room of the porch; Butterfield removed this stair when he demolished the north porch.

Fittings include a Perpendicular screen between the transept and south chapel, much restored in the 18th and later centuries, and some medieval work in the north chancel screen. The font probably dates to the 15th century and features lozenge panels. A highly carved hexagonal pulpit on six wooden columns dates to circa 1600. An oak lectern is 19th-century, with other fittings also of that period. The north aisle displays Royal Arms of Queen Anne.

The church contains numerous monuments. In the chancel is a limestone chest tomb of 1510 to John Stone with quatrefoil panels and central shields, topped with alabaster incised with a figure of a vicar holding a chalice and an inscribed border. Wall tablets in the chancel include a 1794 oval white and grey marble monument to the Neate family by Brewer of Box; an 1812 oval white and grey marble tablet to John Neate, also by Brewer of Box; an 1833 white marble on black sarcophagus tablet to Stephen and Anna Maria Neate; an 1829 white marble on black tablet to Anna Brown with small sarcophagus by Pound of Newbury; and an 1843 white and black marble tablet to Captain Henry Seagrave, governor of The Gambia, with an anchor on chest by Harrison of Marlborough.

In the north chapel is a marble wall monument to Edward and William Walrond, brothers, dating to circa 1615, featuring a chest with arms in cartouche and flying dragons with strapwork on returns, above which are kneeling figures in niches flanked by marble Ionic columns on strapwork pedestals, with strapwork cresting and hog terminals.

The south chapel contains a 1681 stone wall monument to John Norris. The south transept features a 1615 chalkstone monument, probably to Richard Goddard of Upham and family, with a large chest bearing strapwork and foliage with missing metal shields. Figures of Goddard, his wife and children kneel on the chest facing outwards—three mustachioed boys and one girl—with recessed arches to the rear between marbled Corinthian columns supporting a gilded entablature, masks and foliage in the spandrels, long strapwork cresting with central arms and crown terminal, and panelled coloured obelisks at corners. A 1786 scroll over the south door commemorates Thomas Goddard.

The children's corner displays a hatchment with argent, a chevron gules and three sheaves also gules, inscribed "DEO PRO NOBIS". The north aisle contains an 1852 wall tablet to Reverend John Seagram by Harrison of Marlborough, an 1842 white panel on black marble tablet to Broome Witts and fifteen ancestors, and an 1821 white marble on black tablet to Richard Witts of New York and relatives. Three commemorative ringing boards in the nave date to 1806, 1837 and 1840.

Brasses include figures of Richard Goddard of Upham and his wife dated 1495, with his dates unfinished—he was probably the tower's builder—and Dr Henry Frekylton, chaplain, dated 1508, shown as a clerical figure with book and inscription.

Additional items include a late 16th- to early 17th-century chest in the south aisle, a 19th-century North Persian carpet with four stripes and three medallions in the transept, and two timber fire engines named Adam and Eve by Bristow of London in the north aisle.