Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Coxwold

A Grade I listed church comprising a west tower and nave with south porch, all dating to around 1430, with the chancel rebuilt in 1774 by Thomas Atkinson. The building is constructed of ashlar sandstone with lead roofs and displays Perpendicular Gothic architecture throughout.

The Tower

The octagonal tower rises three storeys and features a staircase turret positioned in its south angle. Angle buttresses with gablets support detached square shafts set diagonally, these linked to the tower by short flying buttresses. The west face displays a 3-light window with cinque-cusping and Perpendicular tracery. South and west vents serve the ringing chamber, while belfrey windows on each side contain 2 lights with central transoms and Perpendicular tracery. An 18th-century clock occupies the east side. Between the pinnacles of the buttress shafts sits delicate filigree tracery, and a weather vane crowns the tower roof.

The Porch and Nave

The south porch occupies the second bay of the nave and features a segmental-arched doorway with continuous mouldings of hollow chamfer and roll, topped by a hood mould. Solid parapets carry Jacobean finials, with chamfered slit vents on each side. Inside are wooden benches with hinged seats forming chests, while some reused early medieval grave covers are built into the walls. The wall plate is partly crested. The old flat roof displays crossed beams with a painted carved boss at the central joint and retains some original joists. The inner door is of old lapped plank in a pointed arch with continuous mouldings of hollow chamfers alternating with ogees, hood mould bearing pattee crosses on stops, and masons' marks visible on the inner doorway face.

The nave has a plinth and five bays separated by buttresses carrying detached shafts with gargoyles. A sill band runs between bays, and windows of 3 lights feature Perpendicular tracery, segmental-pointed arches, and hood moulds. Crenellated parapets are pierced with cusped openings and pinnacles. A medieval grave cover stands propped against the first bay, while the Sterne tombstone occupies the fourth bay. A blocked north doorway has a Tudor arch with hollow chamfering, shields in the spandrels, hood mould, and blocking infill containing a strapwork panel with a crown above.

The Chancel

The chancel is constructed in inferior stone and features offset buttresses between its three bays. An early 19th-century priest's door occupies the first bay, while a 2-light window of 1912 sits in the third bay. Sacred monograms appear on shields in the crenellated parapet. The original 3-light east window has been replaced. No windows open to the north side.

Interior Details

The chancel arch is segmental in profile, continuously moulded with double hollow chamfers, while a double-chamfered pointed arch leads to the tower. A piscina in the south chapel has a hollow-chamfered uncusped trefoil head, and a stoup inside the south door displays a segmental-pointed arch. The nave roof is flat with three spine beams carrying painted carved bosses at junctions with tie beams. The chancel roof uses basket-arched beams with carved bosses at ridge junctions and panels divided into four, each with bosses. Windows retain medieval glass in their tracery. A west gallery stands on fluted columns, while traces of black lettering remain on the west wall above it, along with Wombwell hatchments.

Monuments and Fittings

The floor of the nave's central aisle contains a black marble slab with brass indents under glass to Sir John Manston, died 1464. The north wall of the chancel displays large monuments to Henry Belasyse, died 1647, and his son Thomas, Earl Fauconberg, died 1700, with white marble life-size figures and putti bearing an earl's coronet, carved by John Nost. A tombchest honours William Belasyse, died 1603, and his wife Margaret, featuring recumbent effigies within a large classical entablature with painted strapwork, coats of arms, and Latin texts, carved by Thomas Browne from Hazlewood stone. The south wall of the chancel holds a monument to Thomas Viscount Fauconberg, died 1632, and his wife Barbara, died 1618, with two kneeling figures in a large aedicule with Corinthian columns, and an imitation Gothic chantry-style monument to Henry, last Earl Fauconberg, died 1802, and his wife Charlotte, died 1825.

The chancel features an unusual 18th-century altar rail of turned balusters projecting forward in a U-shaped plan between the monuments. A desk with reused traceried panels stands nearby. An 18th-century pulpit with tester and reading desk occupies the nave, accompanied by 18th-century pews with fielded-panel doors arranged to face the parson by Lawrence Sterne, perpetual curate of Coxwold from 1760 to 1768. Above the chancel arch hangs a George II royal coat of arms flanked by Fauconberg arms.