The Church of St Michael and All Angels : P F Ryder
The most memorable feature of Alwinton Church is probably the manner in which it is built into a hillside that rises steeply to the east; its present external appearance, with the towering west gable and steep roofs of nave and south transept, is very much Victorian, although substantial remains of an earlier building do survive.
Exterior
The west end of the Nave is of coursed squared stone, and is flanked by big stepped buttresses. The buttresses, the two tall trefoil-headed lancet windows in the gable and the trefoil-arched bellcote that caps it are all clearly Victorian, but below and between the lancets the jambs and sill of an older window, probably of 18th century date, are visible; its dressings are large blocks with a distinctive rough horizontal tooling.
The simple and shallow square edged plinth that extends across the west end of nave and aisles is of 18th century character, suggesting that nothing survives of the west end of the medieval church. At the east end of the nave the angle quoins of the original aisleless nave survive, of quite large size; on the south the upper part of the quoin has been rebuilt in the 19th century, but on the north the old quoin survives up to the kneeler and footstone of the original east gable, at a considerably lower level than the present one, which is topped by a ring-cross finial. The nave clerestory - two windows on the south and three on the north - is of paired shoulder-arched lights, and all of 19th-century date.
The south door of the South Aisle has a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders with a hoodmould with turned back ends , with an outer relieving arch of roughly-shaped voussoirs (a typically Victorian feature); two small lancet windows to the east of the door and another in the west wall of the aisle are also of 19th-century date, as is the small buttress at the west end of the wall, although some of the masonry in the lower parts of both south and west walls is of 18th century character. Immediately to the west of the sill of the western of the two lancets in the south wall is part of the head of a medieval cross slab grave cover.
The masonry with large elongate blocks in the lower courses of the north wall of the North Aisle may well be medieval, although its features - four lancets on the north and one on the west - are all Victorian. Honeyman mentions a 13th century tomb slab built into the base of the wall, but this is no longer evident.
The only earlier feature in the wall is a what appears to be the east side of a blocked square-headed window c 2 m from its east end, perhaps of 18th-century date. The small buttress at the west end of the north wall is clearly a 19th century addition to an 18th-century angle. Some medieval masonry survives in the east wall of the aisle, although its North Eastern angle has been rebuilt from c 1m above the ground. The east window of the aisle is a small chamfered lancet which is probably a genuine 13th century feature.
The South Transept has low side walls and a very steeply-pitched roof. Old masonry survives in its lower walls (including its angle quoins up to c 1.5 m above the ground) but its features are all Victorian; the south end has a stepped triplet of lancets with stepped buttresses between them, and there are two more lancets towards the north end of the west wall. High in the south gable an elaborate 17th century finial cross has been re-set.
The principal surviving remains of the medieval church are to be found in the Chancel. At the west end of its south wall is a low-side window in the form of a broad lancet, set low in the wall; then comes a 19th-century priest’s door with a shoulder-headed arch, and then a small 12th century window with a round-arched head and a narrow chamfer. Just beyond this a vertical break seems to mark the end of the 12th century chancel; its quoins have been removed, except for two very elongate blocks, which are rather puzzling; could these be the ‘shorts’ of a former ‘long-and-short’ quoin?
Heavy quoins at the present east end may have been re-used when the chancel was extended, but are of no particularly diagnostic form. The extension of the chancel is in rather darker stone; it contains a two-light window that re-uses a 14th century monolithic head, of two trefoiled ogee lights with a quatrefoil in the spandrel; the hoodmould and outer relieving arch of roughly-shaped voussoirs, as well as the jambs, sill and mullion, are all clearly Victorian.
The upper parts of the east gable are all of 19th century date, including the three-light east window with 14th century style tracery; the gable is topped by the moulded base of a finial, which is probably the quite elaborate cross that now lies alongside the base of the north wall of the nave.
The only feature in the north wall of the chancel is a second ‘low side’ window at its west end, a broad lancet with a broad external splay set low in the wall, which the NCH account suggests has been re-cut in the 17th century. Below this the top of a blocked brick arch into a crypt beneath the chancel is just visible above the concrete floor of a former boiler room. The central section of the wall is concealed by the 19th-century vestry, which has a shoulder-arched door on the west and two lancets on the east.
The Interior
The internal walls of the church are plastered except for exposed dressings to the arcades and chancel arch. The dominating feature of the interior is its height, and the remarkable change in level from west to east; the chancel floor, reached by a flight of no less than ten steps under the chancel arch, is around 1.6 m higher than that of the nave, and that of the sanctuary another three steps higher still.
The nave is of three bays, with arcades that have double chamfered arches springing from octagonal columns with moulded bases ands capitals; all their stonework looks of 19th-century date except perhaps for the shafts of the eastern responds. A semicircular arch of two chamfered orders, again of 19th-century character, spans the east end of the south aisle where this opens into the transept.
Most of the windows have segmental rear arches with chamfers only to their to heads only; an exception is the older east window of the north aisle, which has a shouldered rear arch. The lower part of the east wall of the north aisle has a very marked batter; in the south-east corner of the aisle, cut partly cut into this batter and partly into the eastern responds of the arcade is a small medieval piscina.
The chancel arch has jambs with chamfered angles and moulded capitals; the two-centred arch is of a single chamfered order, and has a moulded hood with carved stops; all of its stonework is tooled-and-margined ashlar of mid-19th century character..
In the chancel the southern ‘low side’ has its level sill virtually at floor level, and trefoiled rear arch - the corresponding window on the north is similar, but rather taller and set a little higher in the wall. The priest’s door on the south has a segmental chamfered rear arch, and the small 12th century window alongside it a plain semicircular one.
The Eastern most window in the wall has an irregular rear arch; its internal sill is carried down to form a sedile, although its tooled ashlar work is clearly Victorian. Immediately to the east of the window is an old piscina with a pointed arch, chamfered round, and a shallow circular bowl within the recess; its internal head is slightly raised, although Honeyman’s description of it as ‘funnel shaped, as if it had once terminated in a flue’ is a little ambitious.
The East window is set high above an ashlar string, chamfered on its lower angle; below this, near the south end of the wall, is an aumbry, with no exposed stonework. On the north of the chancel the 19th-century door to the vestry has a segmental-pointed arch.
The Victorian roof of the nave is of three bays, and has collar beam trusses with long braces rising from wall posts carried on ashlar corbels; above the collars are king posts with curving struts to the principals, which support two levels of purlins and a ridge. The chancel roof, of the same date, is of four bays, with rather simpler arch-braced trusses with simple scissor braces, carrying two levels of purlins and a ridge board. The south transept roof is of common rafter form, with collars and scissor braces. All the main roofs have ashlaring at the eaves.