Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

A church dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, located on the south side of Church Lane in Bugbrooke. The chancel was rebuilt, a south chancel aisle added, and the whole church restored and reseated in 1890 by E. de Wilde Holding.

The building comprises a chancel, choir vestry and organ chamber in the south chancel aisle, north chancel chapel and vestry, nave, aisles, north and south porches, and a west tower. It is constructed of coursed squared ironstone and limestone with coursed rubble, featuring ironstone dressings and lead roofs, except for a plain-tile roof to the chancel.

The chancel is 2 bays with a 5-light east window containing 19th-century curvilinear tracery, flanked by offset buttresses. Below the sill is a white marble wall monument to Samuel Whitfield, patron of living and benefactor who died in 1734, displaying a coat of arms and an ironstone hood-mould carved with a helmet above the arms. Two 2-light reset Decorated east windows light the vestries either side. Similar windows flank a reset priest's door to the south with a stepped round-arched head and imposts. Above the vestry door is a limestone panel bearing the Whitfield coat of arms. The north vestry door has a hood mould and a 3-light window with ogee-headed lights and a straight head.

The nave has a 4-bay clerestory with 3-light straight-headed windows, those to the north-west and south-west containing pointed cinquefoil-headed lights. Lead rainwater heads include examples to the south dated 1808. The north aisle features an ogee-moulded north doorway with a 4-centred head in a chamfered stone surround, with a 19th-century gabled porch. Windows to the east of the porch are 2- and 3-light straight-headed; a coupled lancet window sits to the west. The south aisle has similar 2- and 3-light windows to the south and west. Two fine early 18th-century gargoyle heads are present. A many-moulded south door with hood mould is sheltered by a 19th-century south porch with 2-light windows either side containing Y-tracery.

The 3-stage west tower has a west door with a chamfered stone surround and lintel. Above is a 2-light window with renewed Decorated tracery. A clock face to the north has a moulded stone surround. One-light windows occupy the ground floor and middle stage south, each with a cusped ogee hood-mould. The bell-chamber openings are 2-light Decorated windows with quatrefoils to the heads. A battlemented parapet with pinnacles at the angles tops the tower, above which rises a recessed spire with 2 tiers of lucarnes. The tower masonry is banded with limestone and buttressed diagonally. All windows have hood moulds.

Interior

The chancel features a double-chamfered arch to the north chancel chapel, with the innermost chamfer springing from corbels. A 19th-century 3-bay arcade serves the south chancel aisle. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with polygonal responds. The south chancel chapel contains a small piscina with a pointed hollow-chamfered arch and a 2-light 13th-century east window, now internal, which displays Y-tracery with nailhead decoration, hollow-chamfered jambs and mullion.

The nave has 13th-century 4-bay arcades. The south arcade, the earlier of the two, features round piers with semi-circular responds, moulded capitals with two displaying stiff-leaf foliage, and chamfered arches. The north arcade has octagonal piers with polygonal responds, moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. A triple-chamfered tower arch with polygonal responds and moulded capitals connects the nave to the tower.

A 15th-century octagonal font is present. A 15th-century rood screen features ribbed coving and Perpendicular tracery. A painted glass panel in a north aisle window depicts Christ carrying the Cross and is signed C.L. Gray 1827. A stained-glass east window dates to circa 1900, with a 19th-century stained-glass window in the tower and other stained-glass windows of circa 1900 to the aisles.

Monuments

A brass plate commemorates John Wyatt, died 1658. Two white marble wall monuments flank the altar. That to the right is dated 1704 and commemorates Alicia Whitfield, died 1617, and other members of the same family, with coat of arms and flanking volutes. That to the left honours Anne Whitfield, died 1711, and her husband Samuel, died 1734, presented in a garlanded cartouche topped by an urn with flame finial and coat of arms. A wall monument to Reverend Samuel Kenton, died 1753, and his wife, died 1747, erected by their only child Catherine, is constructed of coloured marbles with an obelisk background, coloured cartouche of arms and bears the signature of Henry Cox of Northampton. A similar wall monument commemorates Catherine and Reverend Francis Reynesford, died 1785, with an urn finial and cherub's head below. Another such monument honours James Wassen, died 1797. Additional 19th-century wall monuments are present throughout the church.