Details
SO 85 NE; 7/19
MARTIN HUSSINGTREE CP,
MARTIN HUSSINGTREE
Church of St Michael and All Angels
14.03.69
GV
I
Parish church. C12 origins, rebuilt early C13, repaired and altered during
early C15 and early C17, restored in 1868 and enlarged 1883. Coursed sandstone
rubble, some sandstone ashlar refacing, plain tiled roof, parapets at gable ends
with cross finials, timber-framed bell turret with shingled roof. Continuous
nave and chancel of roughly five bays with a 3-bay south aisle, north porch and
bell turret. Perpendicular style.
Nave and chancel: diagonal buttresses with
offsets at west end; chamfered plinth runs around west, south and east eleva-
tions and is returned round the north elevation and stops beneath the left
jamb of the second window; moulded eaves cornice; west wall is probably of C12
masonry and has widened round-headed central window and two loopholes in gable
apex; remaining fabric early C13; north elevation has an early C15 square-
headed 3-light and 2-light window, the lights of which are ogee-arched and
cusped, and, at the easternmost end, is an early C13 lancet; in the east
gable end is a 3-light window with two-centred head and reset in the apex is
a projecting semicircular date stone, carved in the form of a cowled head,
with the date "1625" inscribed beneath, referring to the general repairs of
that time and probably the east window beneath. At the east end of the south
elevation is an unusual window of paired, cusped rectangular lights, set near
the outside face of the wall, with a row of four square openings above pierced
with quatrefoils, and possibly of early C14 date; at the west end of the south
elevation is a 4-light late C19 window, square-headed with cusped, ogee-arched
lights. Between these two windows lies the south aisle: added in 1883, 3 bays,
with a separate roof, parapets at gable ends and moulded eaves cornice; the
south elevation has a central 3-light window flanked by two 2-light windows
all of similar design to the early C15 windows in the north elevation; at the
east gable end is a narrow doorway with pointed arch, and the west gable end
has a loophole in the apex. North porch: early C15, situated at the right end
of the north elevation; gabled, timber-framed, rendered infill on coursed sand-
stone rubble plinth; plain tiled roof and scalloped bargeboards; long, rectangular
panels in side walls with paired, cusped lancets in central panels; doorway has
plain, 4-centred arch. Bell turret: at west end of nave; square-based, weather-
boarded sides with paired, rectangular louvred openings on lower part of north
and south sides and a blind, traceried frieze beneath eaves of one row of
cusped ogee-arched panels with a row of round-lobed quatrefoil panels above;
shingled, pyramidal roof with swept eaves, ball finial and weathervane.
INTERIOR: 3-bay, double, wooden arcade to south aisle, having three pairs of parallel
pointed arches, with a moulded cornice above, and supported on two pairs of intermediate octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases and on pairs of stone
corbels at each end. Bell turret base on framework of four large posts jointed by
two arch-braced tie beams, all of which are chamfered. Late C19 wagon roofs,
decorated above altar with bosses of fleur-de-lys and rosette design. Late C19
altar rails, pulpit, pews and octagonal font on square base. C18 Parish chest
in south aisle. Memorials: north wall has a mid-C18 memorial to Thomas Wood,
died 1749, and his wife, died 1745; a late C17 memorial, the plaque flanked by
pilasters with skull capitals and above a broken pediment containing a coat of
arms; it commemorates Thomas Tomkyns, died 1675. Between the two is a late
C18 memorial to Jane West, died 1793, by W Stephens. Jane West erected a
tablet at the north-east end of the church to her first husband, the Reverend
William Chapeau, died 1776 which also commemorates her brothers, and, opposite,
at the south-east end a memorial to her parents, Sheldon Stephens, a former
rector of Martin Hussingtree and Hindlip, died 1779 and his wife, Mary, died
l781. To the right of this is a small oval cartouche on a skull corbel to
Edward Wheeler, died 1784. At the south-west end of the Church is the Williams
family memorial, an early C19, large, convex oval cartouche surmounted by a coat
of arms. There is also an early C19 memorial in the south aisle to John Pigott,
died 1828 and his wife, Elizabeth, died 1839. Late C19 stained glass in east
and west end windows. (VCH; BoE).
Listing NGR: SO8767859817