CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL

CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, MAIN STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1315417
Date first listed:: 30-Mar-1966
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL
Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, MAIN STREET

User submitted image — Uploaded by Robert Andrews This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2007-09-04
Reference:: IOE01/16934/13
Rights:: © Mr Tim Nichols. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1315417
Date first listed:: 30-Mar-1966
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL
Statutory Address 1:: CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, MAIN STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, MAIN STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: North Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Tockwith
National Grid Reference:: SE 42700 52692

Details

NORTH YORKSHIRE HARROGATE 5338

SE 45 SW TOCKWITH MAIN STREET (north end) Cowthorpe

3/40 Church of St Michael

30.3.66

- I

Redundant church. 1456-58 for Sir Bryan Roucliffe, C19 restoration. Coursed squared sandstone, limestone and ashlar, graduated stone slate roofs. 3-stage west tower partly incorporated into the west bay of the 4-bay nave which has a south porch, bay 2; 2-bay chancel with narrow door left. In Perpendicular style. Tower built partly in front of the west wall of the nave on 2 external buttresses with large central deep arch on 2 transverse ribs forming a recess in which there is a large pointed 3-light mullion and transom window with cusped lights, to nave wall. Second stage, south side: a circular cusped window, a string course above. The bell stage openings have 4-centred arch lights in chamfered flat headed surrounds, of 2 lights on each side except to east which is of 3 lights with shield stops to the hoodmoulds. Oversailing battlemented parapet. South porch: chamfered arch with 2-piece lintel, turned-in kneelers and gable coping; flanking stone benches within; the inner door is of massive planks reinforced by rows of iron nails. Flat headed 2-light Perpendicular window with cusped lights to right of the porch and to the chancel. The board door to the chancel is in a deeply chamfered pointed arch. A 3-light Perpen- dicular east window. North side: blocked north door to nave; a decorated 2-light window to the chancel; the nave window matches that on the south side. Interior: C17 altar rail of oak with cup-and-vase balusters, square- section standards and knob finials. Early C19 panelling at the west end of the nave appears to be the remains of pulpit and reading desk and now screens the bell ropes. The internal wall of the tower is supported on a round arch carried by large corbels. Original fittings include the font, also at the west end of the nave, with an octagonal base, cruciform stem and square bowl carved with tracery and shields of Roucliffe, Hammerton, Roos and Plompton. The rare wooden Easter Sepulchre is in the form of a chest with 6 blank panels, thickly cusped, with a canopy over which has pierced crestings and a frieze incorporating the chess rooks of Roucliffe and the fleur-de-lis of Burgh. Remains of the original heraldic stained glass in several windows. There are 3 bells (not seen at resurvey), one of which has the earliest use of English lettering in Yorkshire: "0 thou blyssid Trinite, of Bryan Rodlyff hof pyte". On the north wall of the chancel the remains of a brass memorial to the founder (d1494) and his wife Joan Hammerton, are attached to a marble slab. Bryan Roucliffe was an eminent lawyer and Baron of the Exchequer and inherited the manor and living of Cowthorpe from his maternal uncle, John Burgh, c1450. In Feb 1456 the Archbishop of York granted Bryan permission to build the new church to replace an old chapel near the River Nidd, some of the sandstone blocks in the new church possibly coming from it. The unusual structure of the tower is similar to that of castle gatehouses of the period. The brass memorial was stolen from the church c1850 and the recovered parts mounted in 1886; the C19 restorations were restricted to renewing some window tracery and replacing the roof to its original design and pitch. L A S Butler 'St Michaels Church Cowthorpe, Redundant Churches Fund, 1985. N Pevsner: Buildings of England, Yorkshire West Riding, 1967, p 171.

Listing NGR: SE4269852692

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 331742
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Butler, L A S, St Michaels Church Cowthorpe, (1985)
Pevsner, N, Radcliffe, E, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding, (1967), 171

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.