Description

SP 9235-9335 ASPLEY HEATH CHURCH ROAD 6/32 1.3.72 Church of Saint Michael - II* Parish church, 1868 by Henry Clutton, patron the Duke of Bedford. Some reworking 1889 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. Coursed limestone with ashlar dressings. Clay tile roofs. Chancel, N gable block and vestry, nave, N and S aisles, N chapel, S porch. Loosely Gothic and Tudor motifs. Almost all windows have curious tracery, formed by intersecting circles, truncated just beyond intersection. Most are under square heads. Plain parapets to most blocks with gargoyle waterspouts at intervals. Cross finials to most gables, Chancel:E elevation has 3 elongated pointed-arched single lights, central one taller, N elevation has 3-light window, outer lights blind: S elevation has similar window to E and 2 2-light windows to W. Internally 2 SW windows are set in pointed-arched 2-bay blind arcade, matched by similar blind arcade to N. N gable block:2-storeyed. Lower room has plain 3-light N window. Upper room has large rose window with cross of 2 mullions and 2 transoms and trefoils similar to cusping elsewhere. Integral chimney stack to gable apex with linked polygonal shafts. Single-storeyed vestry block within NE angle has pointed-arched E door and 3-light window. Nave: 5-bay round-arched arcades on slender columns to both sides. W end has 2 long pointed-arched single lights. These flank a substantial 5-stage buttress. Supported by buttress, at gable apex, is partially projecting circular bell-turret. Bell- stage has single lights similar to those elsewhere. Small stone spire pierced by small rectangular slits. N and S aisles: each has 2 4-light windows. Steeply pitched roof extends over nave and aisles. N chapel: projects from E end of N aisle. 2 3-light N windows. Slender column and corbels support moulded timber posts, lintel and curved braces, forming 2-bay arcade onto N aisle. S porch: to W end of S aisle. Tall, gabled, with pointed archway surmounted by small single light. Side elevations have single lights. Interior: fairly simple. Chancel has barrel-vaulted roof. Open timber roof to nave and aisles, the timbers substantial and simply moulded. Chancel has piscina and sedilia with cusped pointed arches. Glass of 1890 to chancel E window and N chapel NE window. N chapel has timber screen with heavy cusping and slender colonnettes.

Listing NGR: SP9285835343

External Links

• Wikidata Q17551289

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Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas