St. Michael and All Angels, Middlewich
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St. Michael and All Angels is the parish church for the town of Middlewich in Cheshire, England. Parts of the parish church date back to the Normans, although the majority was built during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.[1] The church was the site of fierce fighting in the first and second Battles of Middlewich during the English Civil War.
Writing in 1971, Raymond Richards gracelessly describes St Michaels as "the one building, in a depressing town, which is mellow and dignified".[2] The church itself consists of a nave and chancel, with a tower dating from the 15th century, which contains a ring of eight bells.[3]
[edit] St Michaels at War
St Michaels was the scene for the defeat of the Royalists by the Parliamentarians during the First Battle of Middlewich in the English Civil War.
[edit] Priests and Vicars of Middlewich[2]
| Priests | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~1200 | Warin | 1342 | John de Leysthorp | 1429 | Thomas Thikenes | ||
| ~1250 | Thomas | 1349 | John Bele | 1459 | John Heynes | ||
| 1306 | Richard Tuchet | 1352 | John Folvill | 1484 | John Bressnel | ||
| 1329 | John de Offord | 1361 | Thomas Fraunceys | 1494 | William Sutheworthe | ||
| 1330 | Andrew de Offord | 1402 | John Tochet | ||||
| Vicars | |||||||
| 1504 | William Bithewaithe | 1695 | William Handford | 1877 | Francis Minton | ||
| 1504 | John Fornebye | 1702 | John Cowper | 1902 | Hesketh France Hayhurst | ||
| 1525 | Amerus Burdet | 1719 | John Cartwright | 1904 | Arthur Gascoigne Child | ||
| 1563 | John Knightley | 1731 | John Swinton | 1921 | Wilfrid Rawton Ingham | ||
| 1568 | Peter Presland | 1737 | Robert Moreton | 1937 | Albert William Harrison-Harlow MC | ||
| 1580 | William Kinsey | 1780 | William Kyffin | 1947 | George Richardson Kemp | ||
| 1616 | Robert Halliley | 1787 | Joshua Powell | 1952 | Leslie Edgar Evans | ||
| 1646 | Thomas Langley* | 1797 | Willaim Henry Heron | 1957 | Laurence Roy Ridley | ||
| 1647 | Matthew Clayton* | 1811 | James Stringer | 1969 | Eric Alexander Owen | ||
| 1662 | Lawrence Griffith | 1819 | Issac Wood | 1971 | Eric William Cox | ||
| 1680 | Thomas Faulkner | 1864 | Henry Goodwin | ||||
*denotes joint ministers
[edit] Notes
- ^ About the Church. Middlewich Parish Church. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ a b Richards, Raymond (1971). Old Cheshire Churches: A Survey of their History, Fabric and Furniture with Records of the Older Monuments.
- ^ Richards notes an old couplet concerning the merits of the bells - Bathomley kettles, Alsager pons [pans], Sandbach big Britons, Middlewich dons
