Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

This is a red-brick church built in 1881–2 to serve the Anglican community as Northampton expanded in the late 19th century. It was designed by architect George Vialls and the foundation stone was laid on 21 July 1881.

The church is constructed in red brick with very small amounts of limestone dressings and red clay tile roofs. A copper-clad spirelet crowns the bell-turret.

The plan comprises an aisleless nave of three bays, a south-west bell-turret, a west porch, chancel, north and south transepts, porches in the angles of the nave and transepts (two bays wide), a south vestry, and a north organ chamber.

The building is generously scaled and designed to supply substantial seating accommodation on a modest budget, employing simple, economical detailing in the Early English style. The nave is divided by buttresses with paired lancet windows in each bay. The west end has four lancet windows above the porch, with the middle pair set higher than the outer lights. At the south-west corner, a slender octagonal turret rises to a belfry stage with tall single-light openings in each face, topped with a limestone cap and a copper-clad spirelet laid chevron-wise. The transepts are substantial, each with a central buttress flanked by three graded lancets, and a large oculus in the gable with a central circle surrounded by eight foils. The east end is arranged in four tiers: the lowest plain, housing the foundation stone; then a pair of small lancets; a row of seven further small lancets; and finally the main east window arrangement of three tall, graded lancets. The south vestry sits under its own gable. A modern addition of offices on the north is designed in keeping with the lancet style of the church.

The interior is predominantly bare red brick, with freestone confined to features such as roof corbels, sedilia, and quatrefoil piers carrying brick arches to the two bays of the transepts. Each bay of the nave is articulated with a row of four blind recesses for radiators, a plain band of brick framed by two string-courses, and a pair of lancet windows recessed under an arch. The east parts of the transepts are canted inward to meet the chancel walls at the start of the sanctuary. An arch separates the choir from the sanctuary. The nave roof is an impressive structure, longitudinally boarded with a concave lower section, tie-beams, and an upper semi-circular section. The nave and transepts have wooden-block flooring; the chancel is laid with buff tiling.

The chancel contains 13th-century-style triple sedilia with shafts between the seats. The east end of the chancel is extensively lined with two tiers of traceried panelling below window level, probably dating from around 1900. The reredos depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by angels in separate niches and is a memorial to the first vicar, Reverend Charles Gray (died 1894). The font has a circular bowl standing on an octagonal base with angle shafts. The nave and chancel are furnished with modern chairs, the pews having been removed, and a modern altar has been installed near the crossing.

George Vialls (1843–1912) was born in Northampton. After schooling in Wakefield, he returned to train under E F Law, then moved to London to work for T H Wyatt until around 1891. In the 1880s he practised from Ealing as a busy church architect with commissions across a wide geographical area, from Leicestershire to Kent and Bedfordshire to Devon. Disillusioned with London life, he relocated to Yeovil, Somerset, by 1894. The schools to the east of the church were begun at the same time, with their foundation stone laid on 1 October 1881.