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St Michael, Huyton, Lancashire

Huyton
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Lancashire
now Merseyside
  • James Cameron

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Feature Sets
Description

The Perpendicular W tower is the oldest part of the exterior, most of which was rebuilt 1815-22. On the N side is the strikingly rusticated classical of the Case mausoleum of c.1681. The chancel has been crudely converted into an Early English lancet style but was originally Perpendicular. Inside, the S arcade is 14thc, and the N arcade is a facsimile from the early 19thc revamp. The church has two fonts, one of which is Perpenidcular, and stands by the S door, and the other, at the E end of the S aisle, is Romanesque.

History

Huyton appears in the Doomsday Book, where it was taxed at 6 carucates. The Augustinian Priory of Burscough founded 1189 - one of the very few communities of religious in South Lancashire - was granted the advowson by the patron of the priory, Robert de Lathom, and the Priory subsequently appropriated the church in the 13thc. In the 1291 Taxatio, the benefice was assessed at £10 (the national average).

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The font is difficult to date as the manner of sculpture is undeniably a little rough. There is nothing that really precludes it from being Saxon except the sheer scarcity of unequovically Anglo-Saxon fonts, such as Deerhurst. Although the round-headed arcade can find formal parallels in Insular manuscripts, in stone sculpture it is much more likely to be after the Conquest. The hexfoil daisy-wheels, clearly made with compasses, are also much more characteristic of Norman work rather than the usual free-hand patterns of Anglo-Saxon carving, also found prominently on a group of fonts in Cornwall (e.g.: Lauceston, Altarmon and Braton). Because of the number of more sophisticated early Anglo-Norman fonts (Kirkby, Walton on the Hill) in Merseyside, a date around 1100 is prudent.

Bibliography

W. Farrer and J. Brownbill eds, A History of the County of Lancaster: Vol. 3, Victoria County History, London 1907, 151-157.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp151-157

R. Pollard and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, New Haven and London 2006, 201-2.

J. W. Ellis, "The medieval fonts of the hundreds of West Derby and Wirral", Transactions of The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire 53 (1901) 70-71.