Description

KIRKHAM CHURCH STREET SD 43 SW 9/21 Church of St. Michael 20.9.85

- II*

Anglican church: nave (built on foundations of previous church) by Robert Roper 1823; tower and spire added by Edmund Sharpe 1844; chancel rebuilt probably by Joseph Hansom to make the altar visible from the nave 1853. Sandstone ashlar with slate roofs. Unaisled nave of 6 bays with Early English details. Second bay from west on both sides is occupied by a slightly projecting porch under a gable. All other bays have lancet windows with chamfered reveals set under a continuous hoodmould and between gabled buttresses which are square below, and semi-octagonal above, the offset. The west windows of the aisles have 3-light windows with Perpendicular panel tracery and were therefore probably inserted when the tower was built. This has angle buttresses and is built in 4 stages with a deeply moulded west door, a 4-light window of panelled tracery set above an embattled string course and below a quatrefoil frieze, a plain panel for a clock face, and 2-light belfry openings on each face. The crocketed octagonal spire rises to 150 feet (40 feet more than the roughly contemporary Roman Catholic church of St. John the Evangelist (q.v. under Ribby Road). It has 3 tiers of 2-light lucarnes and is set behind an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles and supported by 4 small flying buttresses. The aisled 3-bay chancel has Decorated details in keeping with the 5-light east window) which has reticulated tracery in a deeply moulded reveal (possibly C14). 2-light windows with varied tracery in aisles. Most of the stonework of the east and north walls of the chancel is reused. Interior: Wide nave with flat-panelled ceiling apparently supported on 7 very shallow wooden braces whose spandrels are decorated with quatrefoils; intersection of ribs embellished with gilded leaves and, occasionally, heads. Of the three original galleries only the west one now survives, with a Gothic-panelled front; it is supported on slender cast-iron piers of quatrefoil section and approached up two flights of stairs with open strings and slim turned balusters. Original west door now leads into tower. Richly moulded chancel arch with moulded capitals and filleted shafts. Chancel has aisles (now vestries) closed off by glazed screens with ogee arches and ball flowers. Chancel roof is open with 4 trusses whose braced collars support crown posts and upper collars; three tiers of wind braces; decoration of stencilled flowers. There are several fittings of interest: churchwardens' box pews (east of south door) with Gothic details and poppy heads, dated 1770 on a brass plate which is probably not in situ; C14 tomb recess (in south east corner) with pierced curvilinear tracery; wall tablet above the recess, with Baroque scroll work above a winged skull framing a long epitaph, partly in rhyming couplets, to commemorate Thomas Clifton of Lytham Hall who died in 1688 (though Roman Catholics, the Cliftons leased the rectory lands from Christ Church College, Oxford); another wall tablet nearby, with a medallion representing the Resurrection, commemorates Richard Bradkirk of Bryning Hall (died 1813); mid C18 former entrance to the France family vault (east of north doorway) with a semi-circular arch with moulded architrave and block keystone and leaves in spandrels, set between engaged Ionic columns carrying a broken pediment and a coat of arms within Rococo cresting; two tier brass chandelier (bought in 1725 for 11 gns from Brown of Wigan) suspended over nave.

Listing NGR: SD4270932356

External Links

• St Michael's Church, Kirkham at Wikipedia
• St Michael's Church, Kirkham official website
• Wikidata Q7594768

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.

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