St Michael & All Angels, Michaelstow

St Michael’s is a Grade I parish church in Michaelstow, Cornwall — the place-name means the holy place of St Michael — in the Diocese of Truro and the parish of Saint Tudy with Michaelstow.

Overview

Historic England records a church of possible thirteenth-century origin, enlarged in the fifteenth century, restored in 1826, again in 1870–89 by Hine and Odgers, and repaired in 1982. The fabric is stone rubble with granite quoins and a moulded granite plinth and strings to the west tower; roofs are slate, nave and chancel in one. The plan is a nave and chancel with a four-bay north aisle and five-bay south aisle of the fifteenth century, a south porch and a three-stage unbuttressed west tower with a north stair turret, battlemented parapets and crocketed finials.

The south porch has a sundial of 1684, a fifteenth-century wagon roof and a moulded Catacleuse-stone doorway carved with floral motifs. Unceiled fifteenth-century wagon roofs survive in the nave and both aisles. Granite arcades have moulded four-centred arches and carved capitals of Caen and Polyphant stone. The listing notes a piscina and credence in the chancel, a fifteenth-century font and Royal Arms. Cornwall OPC records that bench ends now in the church came from St Tudy, bought by William Lower of Tregreenwell when they were to be burnt; some bear the Lower crest. The octagonal fifteenth-century font stands on a cushion base thought to be Norman. A medieval churchyard cross and a holy well in the churchyard are scheduled monuments.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1158085
• Cornwall OPC: Parish of Michaelstow