St Michael's Church

The Church of St Michael which had originated, in the Medieval period, as a chapel to the church in Lower Itchington. It was completely rebuilt during the Imperial period and is situated in Bishop's Itchington.

The church of ST. MICHAEL is situated on the north side of the village and stands in a small churchyard. The old church, which originated as a chapel to the church of All Saints in Lower Itchington (destroyed by Thomas Fisher), at the beginning of the 19th century consisted of a chancel and nave, structurally undivided, with a bell-turret at the west end. Judging from the view of it in the Aylesford Collection it had no external features earlier than the 17th century. In 1834 a small brick tower was added. The whole church was rebuilt in 1872 and consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, west tower, organ chamber, and south porch. It is built of squared and coursed stonework and has a tiled roof of steep pitch. Internally all the walls are plastered and the floors tiled. The chancel is lighted by a tracery window of three trefoil lights on the east, on the south by a square-headed window of four trefoil lights, using old stone mullions, and a similar one of two lights. The south side of the nave has a porch with a trefoiled light on either side; the doorway has a moulded pointed arch, the mouldings dying out on splayed jambs. East of the porch are three tracery windows, one of four trefoil lights and the others of two. The north aisle has three tracery windows, one of three trefoil lights and the others with two, and on the west another of three. The organ chamber is at the east end of the aisle; it is lighted by a window of two trefoil lights on the east and has an entrance door on the north side with a flat shouldered head. The tower, which is without buttresses, is in two stages, with a weathered offset to the upper stage, gargoyles at each corner, and a plain parapet. The west door has a pointed arch of two splayed orders with a two-light tracery window over, and above a narrow rectangular light; on the south side there is a similar light with a clock dial above it. In the north-west angle there is a staircase turret with an external entrance, and on the north face another clock dial. The belfry has tracery windows of two trefoil lights on all four faces.

The chancel (19 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. 1 in) has a mosaic reredos at the east end and one step to the altar. On the north side there is an arch to the organ chamber. In the floor there is a white marble slab to Margaret, wife of Lord Chief Justice Willes, died 1757; and two slate slabs, one to John Willes, D.D., died 1700, the other to William Willes, son of John Willes, Chief Justice of Chester, died 1729; and on the south wall of the tower there is a memorial to John Willes, died 1761.

The nave (33 ft. 1 in. by 20 ft. 1 in.) has a trussed rafter roof, plastered between the rafters. The font, in the south-west corner, is octagonal and made up of old stones, probably from the arcade of the earlier church. The chancel arch of two orders rests on short shafts of coloured marble resting on fluted stone corbels. The pointed tower arch is of two splayed orders, the outer carried down to the floor and the inner dying out on the wall. The nave arcade of three bays has pointed arches springing from circular shafts with moulded bases.
The north aisle (33 ft. 1 in. by 14 ft. 11 in.) has an arch at the east end to the organ chamber similar to that from the chancel.

The tower (11 ft. by 11 ft.) has a mural monument in marble, flanked by Doric pilasters, in memory of Thomas, the son of Sir Thomas Hardy, Rear Admiral, died 1749; on it is a shield, sable on a cheveron or three griffin's heads erased sable between three scallops or.
Of the five bells by Taylor & Co., 1874, two were recast from bells of which one was probably by Watts of Leicester and the other by Pack and Chapman. 

The registers commence 1585.