St Michael's Church is a redundant church standing on the corner of Bridge Street and Pepper Street in the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The former church was previously used as a heritage centre, until March 2019, when it opened as ''Chester: A Life Story'', a historical attraction tracing the life of Chester and its inhabitants over the last two thousand years. It was then reopened in 2021 as Sick to Death, a historical attraction depicting the journey of medicine through the ages.

History

A church on the site was burnt down in the great fire of Chester in 1188. It is not known when a stone church was first built but the chancel was built in 1496. The churchwardens' accounts show that the church was almost completely rebuilt in 1582. During the Siege of Chester in the 1640s the church was used as a prison. In 1678 the chancel was widened and in 1710 a steeple high was built. Much of the church was rebuilt by James Harrison in 1849–50. It was declared redundant in 1972. It was acquired by Chester City Council and in 1975 opened as Britain's first heritage centre. Its parish registers from 1560 have survived.

Architecture

The church is built in yellow sandstone with a grey

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. Its plan consists of a west tower, a nave with a north aisle, and a chancel. The tower is in three stages. The south end of Bridge Street

Row Row or ROW may refer to: Exercise *Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars *Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise Math *Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra. *Row (database), a single, implicitly structured ...

passes through the open first stage of the tower, with stone steps up to the row to the north and down to the pavement to the south. The second stage has two-light windows with a clock face on the west side and a blank clock-face panel to the south. The third stage has bell openings, above which is a

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

with gargoyles. On the top is a crenellated parapet with eight crocketed

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s and a wind vane. The south wall is also crenellated. On the chancel gable is a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

cross. Internally the 15th-century north arcade with octagonal piers, and the chancel roof of 1496, have been retained. In the church is a monument to Roger Comberbach, who died in 1771, by Benjamin Bromfield. The stained glass in the window at the east end of the north aisle is by Clayton and Bell.

References

External links

* https://chesterlifestory.co.uk/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Michael's Church, Chester Former Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in Cheshire Former churches in Cheshire Grade II listed churches in Cheshire English Gothic architecture in Cheshire Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire Churches in Chester James Harrison buildings Grade II listed buildings in Chester

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links