Details
BUCKLAND BUCKLAND VILLAGE
SP 03 NE
2/8 Church of St Michael
4.7.60
GV I
Parish church. C13, C14, C15, 1585, C17, restored 1885 by F.S.
Waller. Ashlar, upper part north aisle random rubble, porch
approaching ashlar, south aisle coursed, squared stone. Roofs
lead, porch and chancel stone slate. Nave and aisles, chancel,
north porch, west tower. North, entrance facade: 4-stage tower,
moulded strings, moulded plinth, angled buttresses to west;
trefoil, ogee-headed lancet to bottom 2 stages, 2-light
reticulated-tracery window third stage, lights filled boards with
slits in upper half; top stage 3-light window with flat head,
wooden louvres. Crenellated parapet with corner gargoyles. Three-
bay north aisle, plinth, angled buttress to west, square set to -
east, 2-light mullioned window each end, ogee-heads to lights, flat
head to window, parapet gables. In centre porch, plinth, angled
buttresses, double-boarded door with corner fillets, simply-
chamfered doorway with hoodmould; above hooded recess; parapet
gables back and front with cross-gablet apices, cross on rear gable
over aisle roof. Clerestory with three 2-light windows as aisle,
parapet gables, bellcote on eastern one. Single lancet left return
aisle; lines of earlier nave and chancel roofs on gable. Chancel
set back on left, plinth, 2-light Perpendicular window with
hoodmould; boarded door, steeply arched opening with carved
spandrels, flat hoodmould. Two-light mullioned window with flat
head and hoodmould to left. Parapet gable with cross-gablet apex
and cross. East end chancel no plinth, break in stonework up right
corner. Plain string course at eaves level interrupted by 3-light
ovolo-moulded mullion and transom window, hoodmould. Above
datestone. South side, chancel, two 2-light Perpendicular tracery
windows with hoodmoulds, one partly replacing blocked doorway:
buttress adjacent to right window. South aisle: at each end, 2-
light, flat-headed window with ogee, trefoiled heads to lights, 3-
light similar in centre, probably replacing doorway. Small
buttress at west end. Clerestory above as on north side. Tower as
north facade, but head of bottom window only left, boarded door
with light over below. West elevation: on right south aisle,
boarded door with double ogee moulding, 4-centre arch, 2-stone
head. Half semi-circular-headed window above. To left lowest
string from tower matched on projecting main gable in different
form, quatrefoil window over, stone offsets above. Tower as north
face, bottom stage plain, but with blocked doorway. To left, end
nave as right, lancet to aisle.
Interior: porch: stone bench seats each side, boarded door,
hoodmould to opening; arched-braced collar rafter roof, no ridge
member. Church: walls unplastered: Minton-tile floors in
walkways, medieval tiles in the south aisle. Nave: 3-bay arcade
each side, on south 4-lobed columns, simply moulded capitals and
bases: 2-bay similar on north, with plain west bay with no
responds. Outline of lower nave roof each end. Holy water stoup
by north door; set of quoins to west thereof in north wall. Upper
part of stairs to rood screen in south aisle. Nave 4-bay roof,
low-pitch tie-beam trusses, carved boss under stump king-post,
quatrefoil infill to truss: one pair purlins, square set ridge,
all with painted medieval decoration. Aisle roof lean-to, moulded
purlins and principal rafters, chamfered rafters. Chancel roof
collar rafter with slight braces, at one time plastered. Bench
seat in north aisle along wall to west of door, panelled back,
fluted frieze (1615), panelled screen to east with turned baluster
top; trefoil-headed piscina. To south aisle slightly later
similar seat with panelled back, rising up to canopies with corner
pendants between windows, fluted frieze. In chancel fielded
panelling to walls, with bench seat below, surviving outside
communion enclosure, shaped arms to ends of seat. C17 communion
rails, spiral turned balusters; carved wooden reredos
commemorating C.B. Scott, ob. 1917. Pews partly C16, with moulded
top rail and blind tracery to ends. Multi-sided wooden pulpit,
with fielded panels: C17 reading desk with fielded panels, spiral
balusters to open top. At west end gallery, on 4 Roman Doric
pillars, fielded-panel front, breaking forward in centre. Original
tiered seats each side of organ; 2 brass C19 candle holders.
Stairs from north side, moulded string and rail, turned balusters.
Benefactions board and board with Decalogue, each side of gallery.
C15 octagonal stone font, quatrefoil to side bowl, blind tracery
stem, lead lined. Medieval glass in top east and south-east
chancel windows: other glass is greenish and possibly largely C17.
Various early C18 and C19 marble wall monuments, that to James
Thynne, ob. 1709, particularly fine. C15 cope in case in north
aisle.
(D. Verey, Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds, 1970; ibid, Cotswold
Churches, 1976)
Listing NGR: SP0817136006
