Description

BOULGE
TM 25 SE
3/24 Church of St Michael
16/3/66 and All Angels
G.V. II
Church. C16 tower, earlier fabric almost entirely rebuilt during
alterations of 1853, 1857, 1867 and 1895. Brick, flint rubble and knapped
flint with ashlar dressings and plain tile roof. Western tower, nave,
chancel, south-eastern vestry and south-western chapel. Tower: west face:
diagonal buttresses which die back into the angles via 3 offsets. Slightly
projecting plinth with offset of moulded brick. Two-light C19
Perpendicular window to the centre with cinquefoil heads to the lights.
String course between the ground and first floor stage. This latter has a
lancet opening with chamfered ashlar surround. Two-light louvred opening
to the belfry with Y-tracery of brick. Brick band below the battlemented
parapet which has ashlar coping. South face: projecting buttress at right
which is partially embedded in the western nave wall. Blank to the lower
body but with a similar belfry opening to that in the western front. North
face: similar save that the belfry opening is partially blocked with a
smaller C19 opening with ashlar surround. Two cinquefoil-headed lights and
quatrefoils to the apex. East face abuts the nave to its lower body but
has a similar belfry opening to those seen on the west and north fronts.
Nave and chancel: undifferentiated externally. North face: walling almost
entirely rebuilt in C19. Single light at far right of Perpendicular form
with quatrefoil head. To left of this is a reset Decorated doorway with a
wave-moulded and chamfered ashlar surround with hood mould. To left again
a Y-tracery window perhaps mirroring the form of an earlier window.
Buttress to left of this which dies back into the wall by 2 offsets. To
left again a 2-light Decorated window of curvilinear form with ogee heads
to cusped lights and a quatrefoil to the apex. Along the top of the wall
runs a dentilled band of 3 bricks depth. Eastern face: diagonal buttresses
at left and right dying back to corners by 2 offsets. Stone band at level
of lower buttress offset running across the wall and raised in the centre
to form the sill to the window of 3 Perpendicular lights of C19 date
perhaps following an earlier model, with plate tracery to the apex. South
face: projecting gabled vestry at right with diagonal buttresses and a
priest's door at centre above which is a rose window to the gable. Ashlar
coping to the gable and central chimney-stack. To left of this is a 3-
light Perpendicular C19 window with ogee heads and mouchettes above. To
left of this the projecting gabled chapel with knapped flint walling, and
diagonal buttresses. This has a doorway at right with ashlar surround and
a 3-light window with reticulated tracery to the centre.

Interior: wagon roof with chamfered ribs, the chancel roof having square
floral bosses to the intersections. Single tie beam dividing the nave and
chancel with ovolo-moulds to the lower corners and brattishing to top.
This supports a C19 crown post with moulded base and capital from which
spring arched braces to the ceiling ribs. Supporting the tie beam are C19
arched braces which terminate in angel bosses holding shields. The chapel
contains three C19 Gothic monuments to the Fitzgerald family having white
marble tablets with ashlar surrounds one of which records the "restoration
and enlargement of the church in 1857 in memory of Mary Frances
Fitzgerald". Tournai font beneath the tower of c.1150 with square base
decorated with waterleaf mouldings at the upper corners. Stout circular
central shaft with cushion capital and base. Square bowl above this with
roughly finished sides, the ornament having been hacked off, and circular
basin.
Sources:- Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, 1975
H Munro Cautley, Suffolk Churches, 1982

Listing NGR: TM2541352865

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26572959

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

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  Old House Care and Repair
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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