Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Wadenhoe

Church. Late 12th century, 13th century and early 14th century, restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. Built of squared coursed limestone and limestone ashlar with lead and Collyweston slate roofs. The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, south porch and west tower.

The south elevation of the chancel, restored in the 18th century, displays a 2-window range of lancets. A 19th-century gabled vestry projects between the windows, with its own south elevation containing a 2-window range of lancets with a niche between them. A small lean-to building stands between the vestry and the east wall of the south aisle. The chancel itself has a gabled Collyweston slate roof rising behind a plain parapet with 2 gargoyles. An 18th-century two-light east window with a pointed head and roundel is present. A string course above the window rises to follow the line of the gable. Plain ashlar pilasters mark the corners.

The north elevation of the chancel is similar to the south elevation, also featuring 2 lancet windows.

The south aisle comprises 3 bays with a 2-window range, including 2 two-light windows to the right with restored tracery. A 13th-century south doorway features a 2-centred arch head and roll mouldings. Single-stage buttresses stand between the bays beneath a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapet. A 3-light east window displays Y-tracery with cusping.

The north aisle also has 3 bays with a 2-window range of 2-light windows with restored tracery. Two-stage buttresses separate the windows, beneath a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapet. The 3-light east window shows restored geometrical tracery with carved label stops, and a 2-light west window has restored tracery.

A 13th-century gabled porch occupies a bay to the right, featuring roll-moulded inner and outer doorways with 2-centred arch heads. The vaulted porch ceiling was restored in the 19th or early 20th century.

The nave clerestory displays a 2-window range of 2-light square-head windows beneath a shallow-gable roof with plain ashlar parapet.

The late 12th-century west tower rises in 3 stages with 2-stage clasping buttresses. The first stage has a lancet window to its west face and a 12th-century triple arcade with detached shafts to its north face. Lancets appear on the south and west faces, one now blocked. The upper stage has lancets serving the staircase on each face. The east face has an opening with a centre shaft, while the north face opening has a square head. The saddleback roof, with ashlar gable parapets and finial, is probably 13th century.

Interior

The 3-bay nave arcade features double-chamfered arches with quatrefoil piers. Semi-circular responds occur on the north side and polygonal responds on the south side. The 13th-century north arcade displays nailhead decoration to its capitals, while the circa 1300 south arcade includes some stiff-leaf capitals. The double-chamfered chancel arch has bracketed responds carved with green-man and similar corbel decoration. The double-chamfered tower arch features polygonal responds.

An 18th-century plain tunnel-vaulted chancel ceiling and 19th-century roof structures cover the nave and aisles. Two small relieving arches with keyblocks appear at floor level in the vestry.

A trefoil-head piscina stands in the south aisle. A 13th-century circular font decorated with stiff leaves is supported on 4 shafts. Perpendicular bench ends survive in the aisles. Fragments of 17th-century panelling remain in the chancel and south aisle. A late 18th-century fielded-panelled pulpit is present. A wooden plaque in the north aisle bears the inscription: 1686 John Waver, John Peric, churchwardens. Two hatchments hang in the belfry. A fragment of medieval glass survives in the east window of the south aisle. Late 19th and early 20th-century stained glass, probably by Kempe, appears in all chancel windows and the east window of the north aisle.

Monuments include a brass plaque in the floor of the nave for John Andrewe, died 1629. A marble tablet on the north wall of the chancel commemorates Brooke Bridges, died 1702, by E. Stanton, and features an inscribed marble tablet with pilasters, segmental pediment and 3 cherubs heads at the base. An 18th-century marble tablet on the opposite wall has a broken pediment with an illegible inscription. Various 19th-century inscribed tablets commemorate the Hunt family of Wadenhoe House.