Description

LAWHITTON RURAL SX 38 SE 4/15 Church of St Michael 22.11.60

GV II*

Parish church. C15 with C13 tower. Restored late Cl9. Roughly coursed slate stone to nave and chancel with granite to windows; polyphant stone to tower and south chancel aisle with granite to porch. Windows and buttresses; graded slate roofs with tile cresting and stepped coped verges. Nave; chancel; south aisle; south transeptal tower and south porch. Tower: Unbuttiessed in 3 diminishing stages with chamfered string courses, embattled parapet and plain corner pinnacles. First stage on south has 3-light C15 window with hoodmould; segmental-headed slate-louvred window to second stage. Belfry has similar paired slate-louvred windows with hollow spandrels on all sides, all with segmental relieving arches, south and west with cusped heads and labels. Projecting rectangular staircase turret to north-east corner has plain corner pinnacles, chamfered rectangular slit openings and 4-centred chamfered doorway to bottom. Nave North side, buttressed in 3 bays, has square- headed C15 windows of triple cinquefoil-headed lights with hollow spandrels and labels to 2 west bays and one of 2 lights to east bay; segmental relieving arches. West end has Cl9 five-light window with panel tracery and hoodmould. Chancel: North side has C19 three-light ecorated-style windows with hoodmould. Similar 5-light east window. South aisle: All windows are C15 of 3 lights with panel tracery, 4-centred arches and hoodmoulds, one to east and west walls, one to right of porch and 2 to buttressed section to right of tower, with chamfered eaves cornice. Infilled segmental-arched chamfered doorway beneath easternmost window on south. Gabled C15 Porch: has 4-centred outer arch with label and weathered Perpendicular tracery to spandrels. Probably Cl9 Tudor-arched inner doorway with quatrefoils and trefoils to spandrels and label; C15 ogee-arched image recess above and crudely carved holy water stoup to right. Exposed waggon roof with carved ribs, rafters and bosses. Interior: Cl9 door reuses earlier strap hinges. Nave has heavily restored C15 arch-braced triple-purlin roof in 7 bays with a St Andrew's cross to each panel between purlin and principal rafter. Principal rafters painted and foliated crosses intersecting with St Andrew's crosses forming celure to east bay. Chancel has C19 hammerbeam roof with carved angles (some possibly Cl9 and reused). Exposed waggon roof to south aisle with bosses to centre rail and small carved figures to wall-plate at division between main part of aisle and south chancel aisle. Nave arcade in 5 bays continuing into chancel (no structural division; has granite moulded segmental arches supported on clustered columns with moulded capitals and bases (Of Church of St Briochus, Lezant). Pointed single-chamfered tower arch dying into responds. Tower has panelled roof (floor of second stage) with bosses at intersections and narrow pointed chamfered doorway to stair turret. C15 carved bench ends to C19 nave benches. Panelled pulpit dated "1665" resting on short moulded wooden column, with carved floral motifs to top row of panels and bracketed ledge has brass sconce dated "1887". c19 encaustic tiles to raised chancel and sanctuary, which had Cl9 wooden reredos with contemporary blind Gothic tracery panels (stone) to either side. C19 trefoil-headed aumbry in north wall of sanctuary and C19 screen between it and east bay of chancel aisle. C12 Hicks Grey Mill Stone front has carved head to each corner with carved leaf emblem encircled by twin -headed serpent to each face; octagonal base. Partly cut away on west side (traces of paint adhering) suggesting that it formerly abutted one of the arcade columns. Bench in south-west corner of aisle has turned balusters to back, possibly re-used from C17 communion rails. granite celtic cross-head on floor of chancel aisle and late C19 stained glass throughout. Monuments: Cl9 wall memorials in nave and tower. Grave slab (formerly in floor) of Robert Bennet (d. 1683) with incised armorial shield fixed on wall next to door. Coade stone memorial by Coade and Sealy of Lambeth to Richard Goffic (d.1796) at east end of chancel aisle, sarcophagus with figure of a woman reclining on a draped urn, formerly with attendant putti. BOE p.99.

Listing NGR: SX3554782356

External Links

• Wikidata Q17533376

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Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)