Description

SO 8803-8903 CHALFORD BUSSAGE HILL
(west side)

10/10 Church of St Michael and
All Angels
28.6.60

II

Parish church. 1844 by J.P. Harrison of Oxford; 1854 south aisle
by G.F. Bodley. Coursed picked rubble limestone, rock-faced to
south aisle; stone slate roof. Nave with south aisle and porch;
west tower and chancel with north vestry. Four-bay south aisle
with lean-to roof and gabled buttresses with tracery carving on
front face; 2-light square-headed aisle windows with trefoil
tracery. Gabled porch flush with aisle wall has moulded pointed
arched doorway with carved quatrefoil panel above. This powerful
aisle contrasts with the weaker main body of the church. Three 2-
light pointed north nave windows with decorated tracery and pointed
arched north doorway. Rather plain tower with tall 2-light west
window and large diagonal offset buttresses. Projecting stair
turret on south side with coped top. Two-light Decorated belfry
openings; plain string courses and simple tower parapet with
conical roof. Slightly more elaborate tracery to chancel windows,
east window being 3-light.
Interior: tall nave with fine 3-bay south arcade, octagonal piers
having delicate floral carving above moulded capitals. Finely
carved leaf terminals to hood mould and to corbel shafts. Tall
pointed tower and chancel arch, latter with 5-bay timber rood
screen. Six-bay nave roof with arched braced collar trusses on
carved wooden angle corbels; cusped windbracing. Stepped chancel
floor with encaustic tiles; wagon chancel roof. Three-bay reredos
by Bodley with attached shafts. Timber sedile with hood set in
south chancel window. Cl9 choir stalls and altar rail. Square-
headed north aumbry with decorative iron grille. Octagonal stone
pulpit front and font. Stained glass: east window of 1846 by
O'Connor; one north nave window by Walter Tower. Church built for
Thomas Keble following principles of the Oxford Movement, Harrison
being described as a 'person of no great note in his profession,
but an Oxford man, a gentleman, and a scholar'. South aisle, added
for inmates of the nearby Bussage House of Mercy, is Bodley's first
executed architectural work and is more successful than Harrison's
church.
(N.M. Herbert, 'Bisley in V.C.H. Glos. xi, 1976, pp. 4-40; and D.
Verey, Cotswold Churches, 1976 and Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds,
1979). -

Listing NGR: SO8824903503

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26383543

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings