St. Michael's Church, St. Albans
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St. Michael's Church in St. Albans is a parish church which was originally founded in AD948 by Abbot Ulsinus of St. Albans. There is some uncertainty about both the date and the Abbot, but there is no real doubt that the church, together with St. Stephen's Church, St. Albans and St. Peter's Church, St. Albans were built at about that time to receive pilgrims and to prepare them, for their visit to the shrine of St. Alban within St. Albans Abbey. The three churches, all of which still exist, stand on the three main roads into St Albans. St. Michael's lies among the foundations of the old basilica (law-court) of Roman Verulamium, where Alban was condemned to die. In sending the first missionaries to Britain, Pope Gregory had instructed them to build churches on important pagan sites, and it seems likely that this edict influenced the siting of St. Michael's.
The original church was likely to have been a simple timber structure, but was replaced soon enough (historians suggest around AD1000) by a more permanent building in flint and brick taken from the ruins of Verulamium. The Nave was a little shorter than at present, and the Chancel was much smaller. The outline of window openings in brick can be seen at a relatively low level inside the Nave and they can also be made out from the later North and South Aisles, as these walls were the original exterior walls of the 11th century structure.
The addition of the side aisles with their lean-to roofs in the early 12th century blocked off the first windows, and light had to be admitted to the interior of the church by new high-level clerestory windows. Access to the aisles was through new round-headed arches simply cut through the original walls. In the mid-13th century, the need for yet more space within the church led to the building of the Lady Chapel to the south-east, and this in turn blocked off the clerestory windows in the south-east corner of the church. The timber roof dates from the 15th century.
In more-or-less this form, St Michael's Church survived into the late 19th century, when Lord Grimthorpe[1] turned his attention to St Michael's. At his own expense, he extended the nave westwards and built the tower on the north-west corner of the church. The clock is also Grimthorpe's work. With minor modifications, St Michael’s to-day is very much as Grimthorpe left it.
The two most noteworthy objects within St Michael's Church are both connected with our most famous parishioner, Sir Francis Bacon. The Bacon monument, possibly the work of Nicholas Stone, was erected to his memory by his devoted secretary in 1630. Second only to this is the beautiful Elizabethan oak pulpit with its tester and hour-glass. It is believed to have been removed from the Chapel at Old Gorhambury.
The Church is still active today.
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- ^ Otherwise famous as a Queen's Counsel, parliamentarian, clockmaker and, most particularly, saviour of St Albans Cathedral (as the Abbey Church had become in 1877)
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