The Church of St. Michael is the parish church of

Yanworth Yanworth is a small rural parish located in the county of Gloucestershire, England 14 miles south east of Cheltenham and 88 miles North West of London. It has a population of 300, decreasing to 112 at the 2011 census. The village itself is pa ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. The church is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

dating from the late-12th and 15th centuries. The church stands isolated from Yanworth village adjacent to Church Farm.

History

Like many churches in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

, isolation of the church from the village was likely due to the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

, which swept through

and

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

in the 14th century. In order to try to contain the epidemic, many houses were destroyed and burnt to the ground, leaving only the church and a few substantial buildings standing.

Exterior

The church has been described as "remarkable for its fine-jointed

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

exterior, and pretty grouping of roofs".David Verey, ''Cotswold Churches'' (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1976), at pages 87-88 The north wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

is made of limestone rubble mixed with some dressed stone, suggesting that this wall was once part of an earlier building. The roof is of stone slate except for the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, which is leaded. A 12th-century moulded plinth surrounds the church. A miniature tower, dating from the 15th century, stands flush with the west wall. Gargoyles can be seen on the north and south sides of the church but most have been defaced. Marks on the wall of the north transept may be the result of shrapnel damage from the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Interior

The interior has a plastered four-bay nave with a 12th-century transitional chancel arch. The north transept arch is slightly later with a hooded mould and two chamfered orders. A fine carving of a woman's face can be seen below the right hand impost. A tall narrow chamfered arch has been formed between the nave and the tower. The roof of the nave is 19th-century and braced with tie beams supported by (estimated) 15th-century

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...

formed into grotesque carved heads.

References

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Diocese of Gloucester Grade II* listed churches in Gloucestershire