St Michael and All Angels Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

located within the grounds of the gardens of

Howick Hall Howick Hall, a Grade II* listed building in the village of Howick, Northumberland, England, is the ancestral seat of the Earls Grey. It was the home of the Prime Minister Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), after whom Earl Grey tea i ...

in the village of

Howick, Northumberland Howick ( ) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Longhoughton, in Northumberland, England, between Boulmer and Craster. It is just inland from the North Sea, into which Howick Burn flows from Howick Hall. In 1951 the parish ...

, England. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated 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 ...

, receiving around twenty thousand visitors annually.

History and features

The parish of Howick dates back to 1158 when a priest named Asket is recorded, but there was a church here long before his time. The original temple was built in

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

style, it was destroyed by a fire in 1746 and was replaced by what the church guide calls 'a curious Ionic temple'. That 'Ionic' building burnt down in turn and was replaced by the present church in 1848, which was designed by the architect FJ Francis. This neo-Norman style temple is a typically Victorian building, with round-arched Romanesque windows and doors. Francis extended the church eastward by the addition of a

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 ...

and

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

, and westward by the

bell-cot A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

e. The church is closely related to the Greys of Howick Hall, and many of the members of the Grey family are buried in the churchyard. The most famous and important of them was

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a member of the nob ...

, who served as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

between 1830 and 1834. It was during his tenure that the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...

was passed, paving the way for

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represen ...

. But today he is best remembered not for his political achievements, but for the tea that bears his name. The Greys did more than just go to church. Maria Copley, 3rd Countess Grey (1803–1879), was a sculptor. She carved the

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s that decorate the exterior north wall. Mabel Palmer, 5th Countess (1884–1958), commissioned the paintings behind the altar and the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

, and are regarded with mixed feelings.

Michael Fisher Michael Ellis Fisher (3 September 1931 – 26 November 2021) was an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions to statistical physics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase t ...

, the second Anglican

Bishop of St Germans The Bishop of St Germans is an episcopal title which was used by Anglo Saxon Bishops of Cornwall and currently in use in the Church of England and in the Roman Catholic Church. The title is used by suffragan bishops of the Church of England, ...

, recounts the experience with the family of

Charles Grey, 5th Earl Grey Charles Robert Grey, 5th Earl Grey DL (15 December 1879 – 2 April 1963), styled Viscount Howick between 1894 and 1917, was an English nobleman, the son of Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey. Grey was born in London in 1879 and was the son of t ...

in his memoir ''For the Time Being: A Memoir'', he mentions that they were devout

High Church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

Anglicans, but the

churchmanship Churchmanship (or churchpersonship; or tradition in most official contexts) is a way of talking about and labelling different tendencies, parties, or schools of thought within the Church of England and the sister churches of the Anglican Commun ...

of St Michael's is unclear.

References

External links

A Church Near You entry
* {{Commons category-inline, St Michael's and All Angels church, Howick 1849 establishments in England Howick Howick Howick Howick Howick Sandstone churches in England Churches completed in 1849 Howick

Michael and All Angels Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, an ...

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Burned buildings and structures in the United Kingdom Neo-Norman architecture