Description

ROCHFORD CP ROCHFORD
SO 66 NW
3/31 Church of St Michael
18.4.66

GV II*

Parish church. C12, with early C14 alterations, restored mid-C19. Sandstone
rubble, partly coursed and dressed with ashlar dressings and repairs. Plain
tiled roofs with decorative ridge tiles and cross-finial at east end. Timber
bell turret, weatherboarded with oak shingled spire. Three-bay nave with north
and south doorways (blocked to north), south porch and west bell turret; two-
bay chancel with north vestry. Nave: western end was rebuilt in C19. There is
a 3-light west window with a hoodmould. The north elevation has an original
round-headed light at its eastern end. The north doorway is weather-worn and
projects 9 inches beyond the wall-face. It has a semi-circular head of two
chevron moulded orders on large engaged shafts with rudimentary leaf capitals
and chamfered enriched abaci. The tympanum is carved with a Tree of Life (the
only surviving example of this motif in Worcestershire) with a semi-circular
border of six-pointed stars and a lower edge enriched with a cable moulding.
The south elevation has a pair of C19 cusped lancets at its eastern end, a cusped
lancet in the C19 walling at the western end and an original round-headed light
immediately west of the south porch. The porch is a C19 addition; it is timber-
framed on a tall stone plinth with a steeply-pitched gabled roof and has a
cusped pointed archway flanked by similar openings. The collar and tie-beam truss
above the archway has boarded panels and is pierced with quatrefoils above and below
the collar. There are three square panels in each side elevation. The C14
south doorway has an acutely pointed arch with a wide sunk moulding continued
down the jambs. The west bell turret is of square plan and has three pointed
arched louvred bell-chamber openings immediately beneath the eaves level in
each face. The shingled broach spire has sweptewes, a finial and a weathervane.
The chancel has a C19 east end window of three stepped lights with trefoil lights
above, beneath a hoodmould. The central main light is cusped. The north elevation
has an original round-headed light to the east of the vestry and the south
elevation has a pair of cusped lancets, the jambs and rear arch of which are C14.
and the rest C19. The C19 north vestry has a gabled roof, a pointed window at
its north end and a pointed doorway in its east side. Interior: C12 chancel
arch with a semi-circular arched head of two chevron-moulded orders on the west
side, and with square jambs and moulded imposts continued to the side walls of
the nave. The nave has a C19 ashlared arch-braced collar rafter roof, (some
rafters in the east bay are probably C14), and the chancel has a C19 match-
boarded barrel roof. There is a cusped, ogee-arched piscina, partly of C14
date. The stone font on marble columns and the three-sided timber pulpit are
both C19 and in the vestry is the C17 oak altar table with turned legs. Above
the blocked north doorway is a large hatchment with the Hanoverian royal arms.
Memorials: in the nave is a memorial to John Tiylor, died 1760, with fine detail-
ing; also a memorial to Ann Andrewse, died 1775, and an obelisk-shaped memorial
to Sarah Downes, died 1802. Glass: the east window has very early Morris glass
with an Adoration of the Child flanked by angels commemorating a death in 1863.
(VCH, IV, p 318-9; BoE, p 251-2).

Listing NGR: SO6291868506

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547673

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)