St. Michael's Church in Retford

 

The tower and steeple of St. Michael's church

At the end of a full day exploring the historic architecture of Retford, the last place that I wanted to visit before catching my train was the church of St. Michael the Archangel, set on relatively high ground on the west bank of the River Idle and less than 500 metres from St. Swithun’s church.

 

The north elevation of St. Michaels's church

My first view of the church was of its crocketed needle-shaped spire, built of dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which probably came from Roche Abbey. It is considered to be the most interesting feature of the church, with a broach that Pevsner described as “remarkable”, and it dates to the early Perpendicular Gothic period – c.1350-1400.

A view of the porch and tower

With the church being closed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I only had a quick walk around its exterior to take a few general photos and, although the church dates back to the first half of the C13, it has been altered, rebuilt and extended over the years. The north aisle was added in 1863, along with a restoration of the south aisle, and the chancel was extended in 1890.

 

The porch

The porch, with its embattled parapet and finials is Perpendicular Gothic in style but, looking in its interior, the vaulted roof has three thick transverse ribs - semicircular in section, chamfered and rising from ogee corbels – which are dated c.1250-1350 and suggest that a Decorated Gothic porch previously existed.

 

Transerve ribs in the vaulted roof to the porch

Looking at the stonework on the south elevation of the church, the colour of the dolomitic limestone of the south aisle contrasts with the limestone in the tower, which is pale grey rather than pale cream. Although I didn’t examine the stonework closely, this colour variation suggests that different quarry sources have probably been used for the various phases of rebuilding and restoration over the years.

 

The south aisle

Generally, the stonework appears to be in reasonablly good condition, except for the jambs and arch to the porch. Here, the limestone is severely weathered and advanced cavernous decay has developed, with the loss of not only the moulded details but also a considerable amount of the body of stone – especially on the inner surfaces that are not directly exposed to the weather.

 

Cavernous decay on the jambs to the south porch

I only took a quick photo of the north aisle, to record the Decorated Gothic style of tracery that has presumably reproduced the original detailing of the windows but, enlarging the photo, it can be seen that the moulded jambs and arch of the north porch are also highly weathered.

 

The north elevation

Having a quick wander around the churchyard, I noticed a few miscellaneous stones that looked like they could be the remains of old mediaeval crosses and their plinths, as well as other tombstones that I thought were of quite an unusual style, but I have seen no mention of these anywhere during my online research.

 

Miscellaneous stones and tombstones