The Chancel and Sanctuary

Chancel

The chancel is the area of the church used by the clergy and choir during worship.  In pre-reformation times, it would have been separated from the nave, where the congregation sat, by a rood screen in the chancel arch. At the eastern end is the sanctuary, the area around the altar which is separated from the rest of the chancel by the altar rail.  

The chancel has been described as the “artistic treasure house of St Michael’s” as a result of the restoration work undertaken by G.F. Bodley between 1866 and 1868.  This Victorian period was a time when many of England’s mediaeval churches were suffering the effects of their age and were repaired and restored in the popular Gothic revival style.

Walk into the aisle and look up.  The barrel roof was installed and painted during Bodley’s restoration.  Across the middle are the titles of eight classes of angel – angeli, archangeli, principalus, powers, dominions, thrones, cherubyn, seraphyn – with decoration in the Gothic Revival style.  Inscribed around the edge are words, in Latin, from Psalm 148:

Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is at the east end of the church, behind the altar rail.  The name derives from the Latin sanctarium, meaning a place where the most holy things are kept.  In some churches, the sanctuary was built over a place where a holy person was buried, or on the site of an earlier sacred site, possibly pagan.  From 4th to 17th century, there was a legal right of sanctuary or asylum whereby a fugitive from the law, on reaching the designated place, could claim 40 days to decide whether to surrender themselves to the authorities for trial or to confess and ask absolution.  Almost always this lead to the fugitive agreeing to leave the country and to never return. The power was much used during the Wars of the Roses and in 1470, when Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne, Edward IV’s queen moved with their children into Westminster Abbey to claim sanctuary.  It is likely that Kingsland was used by those Lancastrians fleeing the battle of Mortimer’s Cross in 1461.  Sanctuary was not a guarantee of safety and many nobles who were fugitives from the Battle of Tewkesbury, a decade later, were dragged from the church to summary execution.

Under the window in the north wall, to the left of the altar, is the bishop’s chair, carved in the 1890s by local man, Arthur Wall, as a wedding present for his bride.  It was loaned to the church every time a bishop visited and later donated by the family. It was last used by Richard, the Bishop of Hereford, for the rededication of the Church after the 2021 restoration.

The angel-capped riddle posts around the altar were donated by Dorothy Phillips of Street Court and kneelers, vestments and altar coverings have been made by local people to commemorate loved ones.  The name derives from the French word “rideau”, referring to the curtains that could be hung from the riddle posts.  The use of altar curtains went out of favour at the reformation but was brought back into fashion in church restorations from about 1900.

In the south wall, to the right of the altar, is a piscina, a shallow basin used for washing communion vessels.  The water is sacramentally conveyed to the earth through a pipe.  Next to it is a three-seat sedilla, with seats of different height so that the priests could be seated in order of importance.

Looking down at your feet, you will see another glory of the Bodley restoration, the encaustic tiles produce by Godwins of Hereford. Encaustic tiles, or more correctly “inlaid”, tiles are glazed and decorated earthenware tiles.  A design carved into a wooden block was pressed into the wet clay and filled with a lighter colour clay slip before firing.  They came into fashion in the thirteenth century and were extremely popular for high status buildings and churches until the Reformation of the sixteenth century.  Particularly fine examples of these early tiles are seen locally at Dore Abbey and St James’ Church, Colwall in Herefordshire and at Malvern Priory in Worcestershire.

The Windows in the Chapel

These windows contain some particularly fine medieval stained glass, although over time they have been restored on a number of occasions with some inaccuracies. For example the 14th Century east window above the altar, shows the coat of arms of Maude de Braose, largely original, but with one bar too many. Further, the fleury-de-lys with the Lion heads appear to be upside down. This rare and important window, at the outbreak of World War II, was removed by the priest and church wardens and buried on a local hillside to prevent the Medieval stained glass falling into Nazi hands should Britain lose the war. It was recovered and safely re-installed at the end of the war!

In the chancel north wall, to the left of the altar, is a 14th century single light window with a rounded heard. The window above is modern. The trefoil in this north wall window shows a leopard face and foliage and is also 14th century. Other 14th century glass include the middle window of the south wall of the chancel, showing the charming figure of an arch-bishop with a cross, staff, and pall, possibly Thomas Cantilupe or Thomas a Becket. The roundel, possibly the head of St. Helena and other fragments are also 14th century.

Vestry Door

Note the evocative and well-worn threshold stone showing the wear of centuries of local feet! This Vestry had an upper floor, used as a school room and latterly for the Sunday school, but now demolished. Thomas Blunt described this room as ‘an old Room probably for confession’ and is now used as the Priests Vestry. Within the room there is a further door to the organ loft.

The Organ

The organ dates from 1883, and was rebuilt by Nicholson’s of Malvern in 1969, and is one of the finest ‘village’ organs in the district. The organ loft behind is the one area where the church building has changed since 1290, in that an infill room was added to house the organ equipment although the original 14th century window was replaced in the new outer wall.

This window contains some fine heraldic work from 1837, probably copying and certainly containing pieces of the medieval glass. Some of this glass is from the earlier building prior to 1290. The quatrefoil of this window, depicting a shield with a three-legged device, arms of Auffrick, Isle of Man, contains glass said to come from the earlier chapel at Street, which itself dates from about 1290.