Church of St Michael

Details

SU 9079
22/2

BRAY
CHURCH LANE (north side, off)
Church of St Michael

25.3.55

G.V.
II*

Large Parish church. Dates from c1300, altered and partly rebuilt c1500, extensively restored 1857-1862 by T.H. Wyatt. Flint with Bath stone dressings, originally of chalk; steeply pitched, tiled gable roofs. South tower, nave, north and south aisles, chancel, north and south chapels.

Tower: flint rubble with chalk dressings. Three receding stages with angle buttresses of four offsets at the southern corners. Square stair turret, slightly projecting, in the north-west angle with the nave, with embattled parapet rising above the embattled parapet of the tower. The doorway in the south wall, restored 1875, has a moulded two-centred head, and jambs with traceried spandrels within a square external label. Above this is a pointed arch of chalk. The ringing stage is lighted on the east and west faces by small, single, square-headed trefoiled lights. The bell chamber has a window of two, cinquefoiled lights on each face, with pierced stone panels and with vertical tracery within a two-centred head. There is a clock face within the third stage on the south. The ground stage is ceiled by a form of sexpartite vault with a central circular opening and moulded diagonal, transverse and ridge ribs with bosses at the intersections. The vault springs from triple vaulting shafts with moulded bell capitals with octagonal abaci; moulded bases with octagonal plinths on low stone podia with moulded cappings.

South aisle south front: two, two-stage buttresses, four windows, the three easternmost are coupled lancets; between the second and third windows are the remains of a C13 pointed-arched doorhead, now filled with flint. The westernmost window is a single trefoiled light.

South aisle, west front: one three-light window with reticulated tracery.

Nave, west end: two, two-stage buttresses. A C19, three-light window with geometrical tracery. C19 door under in pointed chamfered arch and hoodmould with foliage ends.

North aisle: Five, two-stage buttresses, four windows. The easternmost window is late C15 with three, cinquefoil lights under a traceried square head. The other three windows are early C14, reset, except the westernmost, which is a C19 copy; each has two, trefoiled lights with a foliated spherical triangle, within a two-centred head.

North chapel: three three-stage buttresses. Flat roof line is higher than eaves line of north aisle.

Chancel: East window is a four-cinquefoil light, with a traceried four-centred head; the two windows in the north front are each of two similar lights and traceried heads. All are C19, incorporating older material.

South chapel: C19 stone porch with large curved brackets, stone slated pent roof, and a pointed moulded, arched, stone architrave with foliated spandrels and plank door. A C19, three-light window on left, and a C19, two-light window on right, both with cusped trefoiled and traceried heads.

Interior: six-bay nave arcades, with two-centred arches of two orders, each order being moulded with a sunk quarter-round; octagonal columns. The eastern arches are wider and the eastern arch of the south arcade is built of original chalk voussoirs from the earlier church. The south doorway is probably C14 and has a two-centred head, and is of two orders; each moulded with a sunk quarter-round. To the east of the south doorway is a recessed holy water stoup with moulded jambs and a segmental two-centred head. To the west of the south doorway is an octagonal font with quatrefoil panels and a wooden cover which was made in 1647, as entered in the book of churchwardens' accounts for that year. The chancel has a two-bay arcade on the north and south; that on the south, to the south chapel, is early C14 and of chalk. It has two-centred arches of two orders, each moulded with a sunk quarter-round, supported by an octagonal column and responds with moulded capitals and bases. The north arcade was re-built in the C19 to match the south arcade. The chancel arch is of two moulded orders, and there is a late C15 doorway in the north wall of the chancel, leading to the vestry. The roofs are C19; the nave has a plain braced collar roof of six bays; the chancel has an arched braced collar roof of four bays.

Monuments: there are several brasses of the C14, C15 and C16. Against the west wall of the north aisle is a sepulchral stone, decorated with a foliated cams with the letters LAG on the arms. On the north wall of the chancel is a mural monument with an egg and dart frame to William Goddard of Philibert, d.1609, founder of Jesus Hospital, and Joyce Maunsell his wife, d.1622: within two niches under an entablature and broken pediment supported by marble Corinthian columns, are painted three-quarter figures of William Goddard and his wife; over the entablature is a shield of arms.

Listing NGR: SU9016979704

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

41021

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 99
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1906), 107

Websites
British Geological Survey, Strategic Stone Study, accessed 04/02/2020 from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/buildingStones/StrategicStoneStudy/EH_atlases.html

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