Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Lydford Princetown

Church built circa 1810–14, designed by Daniel Alexander. The chancel was improved in 1868 to designs by R.M. Fulford. Between 1898 and 1901, E.H. Sedding inserted nave arcades, extended the chancel, and added eastern bays to the aisles. The tower was restored in 1915 by Richardson and Gill.

The church is constructed of granite rubble walls with dressed granite quoins and has a gabled slate roof. The plan comprises a west tower, a broad nave of five bays with passage aisles created by the insertion of arcades, and a chancel, all under the same roof. There is a small north-west porch and a south-east vestry.

On the north and south sides, each bay has granite two-light windows with Y-tracery. Sedding repeated the original design in the added bays. The chancel features angled buttresses and a six-light east window with cinquefoiled heads arranged in three pairs between mullions which run straight up through flowing tracery to meet the curve of the arch—a typical Sedding motif.

The west tower rises in three stages, divided by plat bands and containing Y-tracery windows. It has a parapet on a plain corbel table with corner pinnacles and battlements. Towards the upper stage is a quatrefoil set within a lozenge, probably for a clock.

The interior contains plain arcades inserted by Sedding, with round arches set on square piers. A fine mid-18th-century hexagonal pulpit, carved with figures of the Evangelists and enriched decoration, was relocated here from the Church of St Sidwell, Exeter. The east window contains stained glass by Mayer of Munich, in memory of the American prisoners-of-war who helped build the church, particularly the 218 who died here. Various nineteenth-century memorial tablets are present, including one to Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (died 1833), designed by Barry of Plymouth.

With the exception of works to the east end, the exterior of Alexander's church has survived intact, making it of great historical importance as a memorial to the French and American prisoners who built it and as the architecturally most distinguished surviving building on the Dartmoor prison site.