Description

BRICKLEHAMPTON

648/14/183 CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS
11-FEB-65

II
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Medieval parish church rebuilt and restored by Henry Woodyer 1875-77.

MATERIALS: Limestone laid as rubble in the nave, freestone to chancel, tile roofs and cast-iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: Nave with slightly lower and narrower chancel, embraced west tower, south porch and north vestry.

EXTERIOR: The church is mainly in Decorated style. The nave has two 2-light north windows, 2-light and single-light south windows, and doorways at the west end in each wall below the tower (to stair turret on the south side). In the south wall is also the head of a former narrow lancet window. The south doorway is late C12, with one order of nook shafts with waterleaf capitals, and arch with chevrons, label with billet frieze and head stops. The timber-framed porch has open arcaded sides over rendered panels and dwarf walls, and has cusped barge boards. The nave has a tall cusped west window. The tower is roughcast, with angle buttresses. It has a pointed window in the lower stage, corbel table and 2-light geometrical belfry openings within the gable of a saddleback roof. The chancel has angle buttresses and 3 south lancet windows, and one similar north window. The renewed east window is 3-light Decorated.

INTERIOR: The nave has a trussed-rafter roof with a single tie beam, incorporating some medieval timber. The tower arch has a plain chamfer and there are blind north and south arches. The Decorated chancel arch has one order of shafts with foliage capitals, and inner order on foliage corbels. The 3-bay arched-brace chancel roof of 1875 is boarded over the sanctuary, and has ribs and brattished wall plate. On the north side the arch into the organ chamber dies into the imposts, and vestry doorway has a single order of shafts. On the south side are a cusped piscina and 2 stone seats. The east window has a shafted rere arch. Walls are plastered. The nave has black and red tiles, with wood floors below benches. The chancel has richer patterned tiles.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The C12 tub font has crosses and rosettes in relief. A corbelled stoup is re-set inside the south doorway. Other furnishings are mainly of 1875-77. Benches have square ends with moulded tops. Earlier benches with panelled ends are beneath the tower. Choir stalls have moulded and shaped ends, with arcading to the front tier. The communion rail is also arcaded. The plain stone reredos and pulpit are both by Woodyer. There are 3 large wall tablets with pediments and achievements, to Francis Palmer (d 1715), Palmer Hatch (d 1775) and John Phillips (d 1804). Beneath the tower is a white marble tablet to Lieutenant C. Woodward (d 1859 in Punjab). Four windows are by C.E. Kempe. In the chancel are Archangel Michael, SS Paul and Stephen in north and south windows (1887). The west window shows St Andrew (1898). The east window showing Christ in Glory is by Hardman (1877). Nave windows are by William Pearce Ltd (1900-5) and Jones and Willis (1915).

HISTORY: The font and the south doorway indicate the C12 origin of the church. A photograph of 1875 (kept in the church) shows a C14 Decorated church immediately before major rebuilding began. The chancel was rebuilt in 1875 by Henry Woodyer, who then restored the nave, and added the porch and tower in 1876-77 (date on rainwater heads).

SOURCES:
A. Brooks and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, 2007, p 172.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Michael & All Angels, Bricklehampton, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons
* It has a C12 south doorway and a simple font of similar date, but is otherwise Victorian in character.
* The surviving medieval fabric of the nave, including the roof, is of note.
* Woodyer's Saddleback tower is the most memorable aspect of this restoration.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26410507

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)