Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A redundant church at Cowthorpe, built between 1456 and 1458 for Sir Bryan Roucliffe, a prominent lawyer and Baron of the Exchequer. The church replaced an older chapel near the River Nidd, and some of its sandstone blocks may have been reused from the earlier building. It underwent restoration in the 19th century. The church is constructed of coursed squared sandstone, limestone and ashlar, with graduated stone slate roofs.

The building is designed in Perpendicular style and consists of a 4-bay nave with a south porch at bay 2, a 2-bay chancel with a narrow door on the left, and a distinctive 3-stage west tower that is partly incorporated into the west bay of the nave. The tower's unusual structure, built partly in front of the west wall on 2 external buttresses, is similar to castle gatehouses of the period.

The tower features a large central deep arch on 2 transverse ribs forming a recess in the west wall, containing a large pointed 3-light mullion and transom window with cusped lights. The second stage on the south side has a circular cusped window with a string course above. The bell stage openings have 4-centred arch lights in chamfered flat-headed surrounds, with 2 lights on each side except to the east which has 3 lights with shield stops to the hoodmoulds. The tower is crowned with an oversailing battlemented parapet.

The south porch has a chamfered arch with a 2-piece lintel, turned-in kneelers and gable coping, with flanking stone benches within. The inner door is made of massive planks reinforced by rows of iron nails. Flat-headed 2-light Perpendicular windows with cusped lights appear to the right of the porch and at the chancel. The chancel has a board door set in a deeply chamfered pointed arch, a 3-light Perpendicular east window, and on the north side a decorated 2-light window. A matching 2-light window appears on the north side of the nave, while a blocked north door remains visible.

The interior retains several original features. The internal wall of the tower is supported on a round arch carried by large corbels. A 17th-century oak altar rail with cup-and-vase balusters, square-section standards and knob finials survives. Early 19th-century panelling at the west end of the nave, apparently the remains of a pulpit and reading desk, now screens the bell ropes.

The font, positioned at the west end of the nave, is original to the church. It has an octagonal base, cruciform stem and square bowl carved with tracery and shields bearing the arms of Roucliffe, Hammerton, Roos and Plompton. A particularly rare wooden Easter Sepulchre, fashioned as a chest with 6 blank cusped panels, is surmounted by a canopy with pierced crestings and a frieze incorporating the chess rooks of Roucliffe and the fleur-de-lis of Burgh.

Remains of original heraldic stained glass appear in several windows. The church contains 3 bells, one of which bears the earliest known use of English lettering in Yorkshire, reading "O thou blyssid Trinite, of Bryan Rodlyff hof pyte". On the north wall of the chancel, parts of a brass memorial to the founder (died 1494) and his wife Joan Hammerton are attached to a marble slab. This brass was stolen around 1850 but was recovered and remounted in 1886.

Sir Bryan Roucliffe inherited the manor and living of Cowthorpe from his maternal uncle, John Burgh, around 1450. In February 1456, the Archbishop of York granted him permission to build the new church. The 19th-century restorations were limited to renewing some window tracery and replacing the roof to its original design and pitch.