St Michael, Newton by Toft

St Michael's is a Grade II* parish church on Clay Lane, Newton by Toft, in the civil parish of Toft Newton, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church of the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, restored in 1860 by James Fowler of Louth. The fabric is roughly coursed limestone and ironstone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, under slate roofs with stone-coped gables. The plan is nave with western bellcote, chancel and south porch. The west end has a nineteenth-century lancet and a gabled ashlar bellcote. A blocked late-thirteenth-century three-bay north arcade is visible on the north side of the nave. The south chancel window is late thirteenth-century with recut Y-tracery; the nave has a sixteenth-century three-light window with a four-centred head.

The interior retains a small, undecorated twelfth-century chancel arch. All furnishings date from the 1860 restoration. Flanking the altar in nineteenth-century alcoves are two miniature fourteenth-century stone effigies: a lady inscribed Helaine (or Helene) with her feet on a dog, and a civilian named William with his feet on a woolstack. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer notes that the church was almost completely rebuilt in 1860 while retaining the Norman chancel arch.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1166203
• Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer MLI53420