St Michael's Church, Cockerham

St Michael's Church, Cockerham
St Michael's Church, Cockerham, from the northeast
St Michael's Church, Cockerham Location in the City of Lancaster district
OS grid reference	SD 463,519
Location	Cockerham, Lancaster, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St Michael, Cockerham
History
Dedication	Saint Michael
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	2 May 1968
Architect(s)	Austin and Paley
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic, Gothic Revival
Completed	1911
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone, slate roofs
Administration
Parish	Cockerham
Deanery	Lancaster
Archdeaconry	Lancaster and Morecambe
Diocese	Blackburn
Province	York
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd Michael Roberts
Laity
Churchwarden(s)	Evelyn Bush William Hewitt
Parish administrator	Bron England

St Michael's Church is located to the southwest of the village of Cockerham, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and Morecambe, and the diocese of Blackburn. Its benefice is combined with those of Christ Church, Glasson, and St Luke, Winmarleigh. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

History

The oldest surviving part of the original church building is the tower, which dates from the 16th century. The body of the church had been rebuilt in 1814, and this was replaced again in 1910–11 by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley. This replacement cost £5,000 (equivalent to £460,000 in 2021).

Architecture

Exterior

The body of the church is constructed in sandstone rubble, the tower in ashlar, and the roof is slated. The plan consists of a five-bay nave with a clerestory and a two-bay chancel under a continuous roof, north and south aisles, a south transept with a vestry, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages with diagonal buttresses and a battlemented parapet. On the south side is a stair turret. In the tower is a west doorway with a round arch, a three-light west window, and three-light bell openings. The windows in the sides of the aisles and clerestory corresponding to the nave have two lights, and those corresponding to the chancel have three lights. The east window has four lights containing Perpendicular tracery and ogee quatrefoils.

Interior

Inside the church, the arcades between the nave and the aisles are carried on octagonal piers with no capitals. In the chancel is a piscina and a double sedilia. The stained glass in the east window was made by Morris & Co. and depicts the Four Evangelists; the figures of Saint Matthew and Saint John are based on cartoons by Ford Madox Brown, that of Saint Mark by Edward Burne-Jones, and that of Saint Luke by William Morris. The two-manual pipe organ was made in about 1830, possibly by Renn and Boston.

External features

In the churchyard is the 18th-century base of a sundial, which is listed at Grade II. The churchyard also contains the war graves of a British and a Canadian soldier of World War I.

See also

• Grade II* listed buildings in Lancashire
• Listed buildings in Cockerham
• List of ecclesiastical works by Austin and Paley (1895–1914)