The Church of St Michael the Greater is a late-Georgian Gothic church in Stamford, Lincolnshire which stands on the south side of Stamford High Street on the site of an earlier, Medieval predecessor. The church is a Grade II listed building [1] as, separately, is the churchyard wall.
It was called St Michael the Greater to distinguish it from ‘St Michael in Cornstall’, a church elsewhere in Stamford.
The site – at the heart of the Medieval town - suggests an early, perhaps even pre-Norman date for the foundation of the church but it is not until the middle of the twelfth century that it appears amongst property owned by Crowland Abbey. It is possible St Michael's was founded by Crowland. [2] The Medieval church comprised a nave with north and south aisles and a chancel with north and south chapels and was a frequent meeting place in Medieval Stamford of ecclesiastical courts and corporation meetings. [3] It was extensively altered in the fifteenth century and again in the seventeenth at which time its western tower was made of wood, until 1761 when replaced in stone. [2] The church survived until 1832 when it collapsed after the Rector, the Rev. Charles Swan, removed a number of internal pillars from the nave apparently for aesthetic reasons. [4] [5]
The current building, designed by John Brown of Norwich was built in Ketton stone over 1835-6 largely on all fours with the earlier church, in Early English style. It was based on the style of the Lady Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral and greatly applauded by the Stamford Mercury at the time. [4] It had a square west tower, iron railings around the perimeter of the site, substantial interior galleries “and elaborate pewing”. [6] The contractors were Woolston and Collins. The building's original estimated cost, in 1834, was £2,800, while the final, total cost by the time of opening, in 1836, was £4,000. [7] Of the Medieval building, “no more than two re-used possibly thirteenth century stiff-leaf capitals [survive] in an undercroft beneath the west tower”. [8]
The church was declared redundant in 1974 and after some years of vacillation when several options - including demolition – were considered; [4] it was transformed into shops in 1982. The conversion, by Arthur Mull Associates of Huntingdon was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as “an unsympathetic use and an appalling conversion”. [8] The interior was gutted and divided, and its Georgian plasterwork and stained-glass windows destroyed. While a fifteenth-century octagonal font was dispatched to St Nicholas Church, Leicester, [9] a peal of eighteenth-century bells, a pair of seventeenth-century silver flagons and other church plate was apparently dispersed. [7] The organ built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1863 [10] was dispersed to St Mark's, Killylea, Co. Armagh in 1967.[ dubious ]
Six plate-glass shop windows were introduced into the north wall, the shopping units extending to the ‘rear’ of the building on the ground floor while the remainder is used for storage. A car-park and delivery area were introduced at the rear, flattening much of the Medieval churchyard, although a number of fine eighteenth and nineteenth century tombstones and memorials, and in particular a late-seventeenth century chest tomb, survive. Even so, what little remains has also been threatened with development every few years, and a number of attempts made to build shop units upon it. [4]
The churchyard remains in the care of South Kesteven District Council. [11] A Holocaust memorial was added in the twenty-first century. In 2016 gates bearing the Stamford arms were commissioned.
Barnack is a village and civil parish in the Peterborough unitary authority of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England and the historic county of Northamptonshire. Barnack is in the north-west of the unitary authority, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-east of Stamford, Lincolnshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Pilsgate about 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of Barnack. Both Barnack and Pilsgate are on the B1443 road. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 931.
Crowland Abbey is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
York had around 45 parish churches in 1300. Twenty survive, in whole or in part, a number surpassed in England only by Norwich, and 12 are used for worship. This article consists of a list of medieval churches which still exist in whole or in part, and a list of medieval churches which are known to have existed in the past but have been completely demolished.
Thorney Abbey, now the Church of St Mary and St Botolph, was a medieval monastic house established on the island of Thorney in The Fens of Cambridgeshire, England.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is in Leek Road, Bosley, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the deanery of Macclesfield. Its benefice is combined with those of St Michael, North Rode, St Michael, Wincle, and St Saviour, Wildboarclough.
St Mary's Church, Stamford is a parish church of the Church of England, located in Stamford, Lincolnshire, lending its name to St Mary's Hill on which it stands, and which runs down to the river crossing opposite The George Hotel.
The Church of St Gregory Stoke St Gregory, is a Church of England parish church in Somerset, England. Its parish is part of the Athelney Benefice, along with the parishes of St Michael, Burrowbridge, St Bartholomew, Lyng and SS Peter and Paul, North Curry.
St George's Church, Beckenham is the Church of England parish church of Beckenham, Greater London. It is Grade II* listed.
St James, Didsbury, on Stenner Lane, is a Grade II* Church of England church in the Manchester suburb of Didsbury and with Emmanuel church is part of the parish of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury.
St Denys' Church is a medieval Anglican parish church in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. While a church and a priest have probably been present in the settlement since approximately 1086, the oldest parts of the present building are the tower and spire, which date to the late 12th and early 13th centuries; the stone broach spire is one of the earliest examples of its kind in England. The Decorated Gothic nave, aisles and north transept were built in the 14th century. The church was altered in the 19th century: the north aisle was rebuilt by the local builders Kirk and Parry in 1853 and the tower and spire were largely rebuilt in 1884 after being struck by lightning. St Denys' remains an active parish church.
St Mary Magdalene Church is an Anglican parish church of medieval origin in Gedney, Lincolnshire. Renowned for its large size in the surrounding low-lying landscape, it is commonly known as the Cathedral of the Fens. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Church of St Paul in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, was one of the town's fourteen Medieval parish churches until its deconsecration and extensive demolition during the Reformation when the remaining part became used as the schoolroom of Stamford School. It was then restored and extended in 1929-30 for use as the school chapel in commemoration of those old boys and staff who had died in the First World War. The medieval remains were the eastern part of the south aisle and adjacent fragments of the nave of the church.
St Michael's Church is in Church Lane, Aughton, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Ormskirk, the archdeaconry of Wigan & West Lancashire, and the diocese of Liverpool. Its benefice is united with that of Holy Trinity, Bickerstaffe. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
All Saints Church is in the village of Bolton, Cumbria, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Appleby, the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its benefice is united with those of five local churches to form The Leith-Lyvennet Group of Parishes. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
St Mary's Church is the oldest parish church in Hendon in the London Borough of Barnet. The mother church of Christ Church, Brent Street, the two form one parish in the Diocese of London.
William Adams Nicholson (1803–1853) was an English architect who worked in Lincoln and was a founding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
St Peter's Church is a Grade I listed Anglican parish church dedicated to Saint Peter, in Ropsley, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 5 miles (8 km) east from Grantham, and in the South Kesteven Lincolnshire Vales. St Peter's is in the ecclesiastical parish of Ropsley, and is part of the North Beltisloe Group of churches in the Deanery of Beltisloe, and the Diocese of Lincoln.
St John the Evangelist's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to John the Evangelist, in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Grantham, and in the South Kesteven Lincolnshire Vales. It is noted in particular for its 14th- and 15th-century medieval wall paintings.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Botolph's Church, Quarrington</span> Church in Quarrington, [[Lincolnshire]], England](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Quarrington%2C_St_Botolph%27s_church_-_49697149402.jpg/320px-Quarrington%2C_St_Botolph%27s_church_-_49697149402.jpg)
St Botolph's Church is an Anglican church in Quarrington in Lincolnshire, England. The area has been settled since at least the Anglo-Saxon period, and a church existed at Quarrington by the time the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, when it formed part of Ramsey Abbey's fee. It was granted to Haverholme Priory in 1165, and the Abbey claimed the right to present the rector in the 13th century.
Bellamy and Hardy was an architectural practice in Lincoln, England, that specialised particularly in the design of public buildings and non-conformist chapels. Pearson Bellamy had established his own architectural practice by 1845 and he entered into a partnership with James Spence Hardy in June 1853. Both partners had previously worked for the Lincoln architect William Adams Nicholson. Hardy was described as "Chief Clerk" to Nicholson. Hardy joined Pearson Bellamy immediately after the sudden death of Nicholson. As all known architectural drawings by the practice are signed Pearson Bellamy, it is likely that Bellamy was the architect and Hardy was the administrator in the practice. The partnership lasted until 1887 After this Bellamy continued to practice until 1896.