Description

TL 96 NE HUNSTON
2/82 Church of St Michael
15.11.54

-- II*

Parish church, medieval, restored early C19 and 1882. Nave, chancel, west
tower, south transept, south porch. Flint rubble: apart from tower almost
entirely plastered: freestone dressings. Slated roofs with parapet gables. A
number of mid C13 features, but the fabric of nave and chancel may be largely
of C12 or earlier. (Reset low in the chancel wall is a C12 window head with
bands of shallow decoration). C13 east window: triple lancets recessed within
a chamfered outer arch, and contemporary angle buttresses at the eastern
corners; hoodmoulded on inner face. 3 C13 windows in south wall of chancel
and 2 in north wall: lancets, with inner mask-stopped hoodmoulds. The south
chancel doorway (blocked) has round arches one above the other (the upper one
glazed with cusping), and with C13 hoodmould - possibly a late C13 remodelling
of an earlier doorway. The north doorway is of C13, and its hoodmould links
with the adjacent window. Late C13 transept:- a triple-lancet gable window.
A good late C13 doorway in the west wall is hoodmoulded and shafted. A double
piscina in the south-east corner, trefoil-headed with nook-shafts having
moulded capitals. Two C13 lancets in the east wall: between them is an early
c14 image niche, the jambs enriched with large and complex dog-teeth: the
hoodmould is also enriched. A wide arch leading from the nave rises from
corbels with carved capitals. Wide chancel arch, much restored early Cl9 but
with circular banded shafts and foliated capitals of C13 origin. The shafts
and capitals are C19. Plain C13 doorways in south and north have walls (the
latter blocked). A C13 lancet in the south wall is blocked by a marble slab
recording, in interesting detail, the endowment of Mrs Mary Page (d.1731). A
simple unbuttressed tower with cusped Y-traceried windows was added in late
Two windows in north wall, of C14 and C15; each has one altered widely-
splayed jamb, no doubt from the preceding Norman windows. A further square-
headed C15 window in south wall. A 6-bay hammerbeam roof, of unusually crude
workmanship, and probably by a local C15 carpenter: the hammerbeams project
only slightly and the posts are in the form of arch braces. The form of the
high collars and king posts is unusual: every other truss has the normal arch
braced collar, with king post rising to a moulded ridge piece; but alternate
king posts are octagonal in form, pendant, and bisect the arch braces which
are without their collars. Chancel roof rebuilt early C19, to the same design
as in the nave. A wall tablet to Arther Heigham (1787) in the chancel. Two
small C17 wall tablets in the transept and another in the nave. 3 painted
hatchments.

Listing NGR: TL9758568048

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536171

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)