A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The chancel and nave are under one continuous 

 blue-slated roof and the south aisle has a separate 

 gabled slated roof finishing behind an embattled 

 parapet. The walls are generally constructed of 

 rubble masonry with sandstone dressings, the whole 

 of the parapet of the south aisle, together with its 

 eastern gable, being of dressed stone. 



The east wall of the chancel, however, is built of 

 red sandstone blocks and may be a I /th-century 

 reconstruction. The east window is of three 

 trefoiled lights with perpendicular tracery and 

 moulded jambs and mullions with a very slight 

 reveal and without hood mould. On the south side 

 the chancel is open to the aisle by two wide arches, 

 but there is a 5 ft. 6 in. length of straight wall at 

 the east end in which is a piscina with cinquefoiled 

 head and chamfered jambs, now only 1 9 in. from the 

 floor and without bowl, and on the east wall to the 

 north of the window is a plain stone bracket. The 

 north wall sets back 6 in. at a distance of 7 ft. 3 in. 



16 "CENT 



'"CENT 



MODERN 



PLAN OF ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH 



from the east, forming a slight recess about 9 ft. long, 

 to the west of which is a modern two-light traceried 

 window. Before the erection of the vestry there was 

 a second window to the eastward, the position of 

 which may still be seen in the plastered wall within 

 the recess, of which part of the external hood mould 

 remains. The arrangements of the sanctuary being 

 altered in 1907 necessitated the vestry door being 

 pushed further westward and a skew passageway 

 being formed through the wall. There is no chancel 

 arch or screen and no distinction between the chancel 

 and the nave, except in the construction of the roof, 

 which in the chancel is boarded and consists of three 

 bays with plain king-post trusses, the tie-beams 

 cutting across the top of the east window. The 

 same roof is continued over the nave with collared 

 principals and shaped wood brackets on stone corbels, 

 and is of seven bays plastered between the trusses 

 and with three modern dormer windows on the 

 south side. 



The south arcade consists of six pointed arches of 



262 



two chamfered orders springing from octagonal piers, 

 i ft. 8 in. diam., with moulded capitals and bases and 

 from responds at ends. The two easternmost arches 

 to the chancel are wider than those to the nave, the 

 piers are thicker and the detail of the capitals different, 

 but they appear to have been built at the same time. 

 The north arcade consists of four pointed arches on 

 octagonal piers similar to those on the south side, the 

 capitals only slightly differing in detail. The piers are 

 5 ft. 6 in. in height to the top of the capitals, the height 

 of the arches above being 10 ft. 2 in. to the crown. 

 There is a 4 ft. length of blank wall at the west end 

 of the nave on the north side and the whole of the 

 interior walling is plastered. The windows of the 

 south aisle are all square-headed, of three lights with 

 external hood mould, 10 and are probably of 16th- 

 century date. There are two windows and a priest's 

 door to the chancel aisle and a single window and 

 doorway to the nave. The east window of the aisle 

 has a four-centred head with three pointed lights 



and hollow-chamfered 

 mullions and the west 

 window is modern. 



The porch, which 

 is dated 1 6 1 1 , stands 

 12 ft. from the west 

 end of the aisle, and 

 is built of wrought 

 stone with a blue- 

 slated overhanging 

 roof and segmental 

 outer arch. It is very 

 plain in character and 

 small in size, measur- 

 ing only 8 ft. 3 in. by 

 8 ft. II in. wide, and 

 has a seat on each side. 

 The north aisle pro- 

 per is confined to the 

 two western bays of 

 the nave, beyond 

 which, to the east, it 

 is merged into the 

 chantry chapel. Its 

 west end, which now 

 forms the baptistery, 

 is lighted by a modern 



three-light segmental-headed traceried window, and 

 has a pointed north door opposite the second 

 bay. The wall west of the doorway is occupied by 

 a modern Gothic memorial to members of the 

 Swainson family, and the floor of the baptistery is 

 raised two steps above that of the nave. The aisle 

 roof is a continuation of that of the nave, with low 

 overhanging eaves. 



The Butler chapel, or St. Katharine's chantry, is 

 now seated with modern pews and open to the nave, 

 but at the west end is separated from the aisle by 

 an ornate early igth-century Gothic screen, said to 

 have been made at Lancaster and bearing the arms 

 of the France and Wilson families. 11 The floor is 

 boarded and raised two steps above that of the nave, 

 and the chapel is covered with a separate low-pitched 

 gabled roof with flat plaster ceiling, the latter probably 

 introduced in 1 797. At this time, too, a fireplace was 



10 The westernmost one is slightly different in detail. 



11 Fishwick, op. cit. 57. 



SCALE OF FE E T 



