St Michael's Church, Grimsargh

St Michael's Church, Grimsargh
St Michael's Church from the east
St Michael's Church, Grimsargh Location in the City of Preston district
Coordinates: 53°47′57″N 2°38′08″W / 53.7991°N 2.6356°W
OS grid reference	SD 582,338
Location	Grimsargh, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St Michael, Grimsargh
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	11 November 1966
Architect(s)	Paley and Austin
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Administration
Parish	St Michael Grimsargh
Deanery	Grimsargh
Archdeaconry	Preston
Diocese	Blackburn
Province	York

St Michael's Church is in the village of Grimsargh, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Grimsargh, the archdeaconry of Preston, and the diocese of Blackburn.^[1] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.^[2]

History

A chapel was built on the site of the present church in 1716, and a north aisle and a chancel were added in 1840.^[3] Between 1868 and 1871 the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin carried out work on the church.^[4] They rebuilt the nave, providing seating for 220 people, and added a tower. This cost £3,000 (equivalent to £240,000 in 2015),^[5] and was paid for by the Revd John Cross.^[6]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in sandstone and has slate roofs. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave with a north aisle, a single-bay chancel, a north vestry, and a west tower. The architectural style is Decorated. The tower is in three stages, with a stair turret to the southeast and angle buttresses. In the top stage are three-light bell openings, and the tower is surmounted by a battlemented parapet and a pyramidal roof. Along the south side of the church are two-light windows and a gabled porch. The east window has three lights. In the wall of the north aisle are two-light square-headed windows. The vestry has a north doorway, and there are two windows in the east wall.^[2]

Interior

Internally, the arcade is carried on octagonal piers. The nave has a barrel roof. In the chancel there are two sedilia with trefoil heads.^[2] The church contains two fonts. One of these consists of an octagonal bowl on a fluted base, dating possibly from the 18th century; the other is a 19th-century tub. The stained glass in the east window dates from 1954 and is by Shrigley and Hunt.^[3]

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of three soldiers and a Royal Air Force officer of World War I. and a Royal Air Force Sergeant of World War II.^[7]

See also

• Listed buildings in Grimsargh
• List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin

References

1. St Michael, Grimsargh, Church of England, retrieved 22 July 2011
2. Historic England, "Parish Church of St Michael, Grimsargh (1361661)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 June 2012
3. Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 314–315, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
4. Price, James (1998), Sharpe, Paley and Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836–1942, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, p. 83, ISBN 1-86220-054-8
5. UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
6. Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, p. 223, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
7. GRIMSARGH (ST. MICHAEL) CHURCHYARD, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 14 February 2013