St. Michael and All Angels, Middlewich

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St Michael and All Angels church, Middlewich, England (2006)

St. Michael and All Angels is the parish church for the town of Middlewich in Cheshire, England. Parts of the parish church date back to the Normans, although the majority was built during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.[1] The church was the site of fierce fighting in the first and second Battles of Middlewich during the English Civil War.

Writing in 1971, Raymond Richards gracelessly describes St Michaels as "the one building, in a depressing town, which is mellow and dignified".[2] The church itself consists of a nave and chancel, with a tower dating from the 15th century, which contains a ring of eight bells.[3]

[edit] St Michaels at War

St Michaels was the scene for the defeat of the Royalists by the Parliamentarians during the First Battle of Middlewich in the English Civil War.

[edit] Priests and Vicars of Middlewich[2]

Priests
~1200 Warin   1342 John de Leysthorp   1429 Thomas Thikenes
~1250 Thomas   1349 John Bele   1459 John Heynes
1306 Richard Tuchet   1352 John Folvill   1484 John Bressnel
1329 John de Offord   1361 Thomas Fraunceys   1494 William Sutheworthe
1330 Andrew de Offord   1402 John Tochet
Vicars
1504 William Bithewaithe   1695 William Handford   1877 Francis Minton
1504 John Fornebye   1702 John Cowper   1902 Hesketh France Hayhurst
1525 Amerus Burdet   1719 John Cartwright   1904 Arthur Gascoigne Child
1563 John Knightley   1731 John Swinton   1921 Wilfrid Rawton Ingham
1568 Peter Presland   1737 Robert Moreton   1937 Albert William Harrison-Harlow MC
1580 William Kinsey   1780 William Kyffin   1947 George Richardson Kemp
1616 Robert Halliley   1787 Joshua Powell   1952 Leslie Edgar Evans
1646 Thomas Langley*   1797 Willaim Henry Heron   1957 Laurence Roy Ridley
1647 Matthew Clayton*   1811 James Stringer   1969 Eric Alexander Owen
1662 Lawrence Griffith   1819 Issac Wood   1971 Eric William Cox
1680 Thomas Faulkner   1864 Henry Goodwin  

*denotes joint ministers

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ About the Church. Middlewich Parish Church. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
  2. ^ a b Richards, Raymond (1971). Old Cheshire Churches: A Survey of their History, Fabric and Furniture with Records of the Older Monuments. 
  3. ^ Richards notes an old couplet concerning the merits of the bells - Bathomley kettles, Alsager pons [pans], Sandbach big Britons, Middlewich dons
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