No.127
The Trusty Servant
took place in the early years of the
19th century under the direction of
Revd G Coxe. By 1822 the whole
structure of the church had been
altered: galleries and the north arcade
columns were removed to create
the wide open nave with the curved
plaster ceiling visible today. Windows
were added on the north side and
the chancel was extended, the main
entrance was moved to the centre of
the south wall and the font and pulpit
were relocated. St Michael’s was at
the beginning of a period of great
change.
‘The East Prospect of the City of Winchester’ Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 1736,
London. Photograph by Seymour & Bainbridge Ltd
by permission Kingsgate Books & Prints.
are a number of 17th- & 18th-century
wall monuments and an attractive
15th-century font.
Inevitably, the early history of the
church is harder to trace, but we have
been fortunate to find a great deal
of information on the background
and development of Michlā from
the 1800s onwards. This is primarily
from the parish records held at
Hampshire Record Office (HRO), but
drawings have also emerged from
such diverse sources as the Lambeth
Palace Library, the V&A and RIBA
drawings collections and the Getty
Research Institute Library in Los
Angeles.
the render remain on the north-facing
nave walls.
A slightly later depiction of the
church dating from the 1830s,
together with a series of plans
showing proposed internal
alterations, both held in the HRO,
record the significant changes which
A second major phase of work was
instigated in the late 19th century
by Revd John William Marsh and
continued by Revd Henry E Moberly
who followed as Rector in 1883.
The architect commissioned for the
project was William Butterfield (1844-
1900), a gothic-revivalist architect
renowned for his ecclesiastical
buildings. Drawings held in the
V&A show that Butterfield’s plans
for the church were ambitious,
involving an almost complete
rebuild and leaving only part of the
west tower untouched. The Getty
The earliest image of the church
found to date is in the 1736 engraving
of Winchester by Samuel and
Nathaniel Buck, where St Michael’s
can be seen against the backdrop of
open fields with the College buildings
in the foreground.
The College archives also revealed a
delightful watercolour of the church
viewed from the north-west dating
from the 1820s. It is interesting
to note that the church was once
rendered and limewashed; elements of
Watercolour of St Michael’s Church by G S Shepherd circa 1820.
Winchester College archives.
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