St Michael and All Angels is a small church, but it contains an extraordinary collection of objects that span nearly a thousand years. Some are grand and obvious, while others are easy to miss. Together they tell the story of the people who built, used and cared for this church across many generations.
The Norman Doorway
The south doorway is the oldest part of the church that you can touch. Built in the twelfth century, its rounded arch is unmistakably Norman: solid, simple and built to last. At the centre of the arch is a carved head, worn smooth by centuries of weather, while rough corbel carvings survive at either end of the hood mould.
Look carefully at the stone lintels inside the doorway and in the top corner of the first south window. These are believed to be reused Saxon grave markers, built into the church when the Norman church was constructed. Their carved crosses can still be made out faintly in the stone. Someone’s memorial became part of the fabric of the new church, and in doing so has survived for far longer than anyone could have imagined.
The Crucifix Roundel
Set into the south wall inside the church is a small circular stone carved with a crucifix in low relief. It is only about a foot across, easy to miss at first glance, but it is one of the most unusual objects in the church.
The figure of Christ is carved in a very simple style, with a calm face rather than an expression of suffering. This has led some writers to describe it as an image of the “Triumphant Christ” — Christ conquering death rather than enduring it. Cox believed the stone dated from the Norman period, while others have suggested it may even be earlier.
The stone was rediscovered in 1842 when the church was being reordered and new pews were installed. It was then set into the wall and initially protected behind glass.
The Font
The font stands near the entrance to the church and is one of its finest medieval survivals. It probably dates from the thirteenth century, although the date 1663 is carved into the top. Most historians believe that this date records a later repair or return to use rather than the date when the font itself was made.
The bowl is circular and stands on a cluster of eight columns, giving it a surprisingly elegant appearance for such a small church. Around the rim is a carved border of pointed trefoils. The stone has been worn smooth in places by centuries of use.
The Medieval Glass
The fragments of ancient stained glass gathered in the south chancel window are among the most debated objects in the church. What survives today is only a small part of what was once a much larger and more impressive scheme that formed the main east window behind the altar.
The clearest element of surviving glass is the coat of arms of the Kniveton family, quartered with another unidentified family shield.
In the early eighteenth century, the heraldic recorders the Bassano brothers recorded that the east window showed Christ on the cross in the centre, with the Virgin Mary to the left and Mary Magdelane to the right in the side lights. The Kniveton arms appeared beneath in the centre window.
By the time J. Charles Cox visited in the 1870s, most of this glass had been moved to the south chancel window. He thought it had probably been rearranged when the church was reordered in 1842, and commented that the heraldic shield had been “put together in a clumsy way”.
The other randomly set pieces of glass are believed to be whats left of the main east window scene. They are undoubtedly old but precisely how old is uncertain. Some reports describe the fragments as possibly twelfth or thirteenth century, based on their characteristic brown-yellow colouring, the tell-tale sign of forest glass, made in woodland furnaces.
Others have argued that some of the painted pieces are later, from the fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The honest answer is that nobody knows for certain.
Cox and Heather disagreed about the identity of the original figures. Bassano had described the Virgin and St Mary Magdalene. Cox, noting a fragment showing a hand holding a book, thought one figure was more likely St John the Evangelist. Heather however named John the Baptist instead. Neither saw the original glass complete, so neither could be certain.
Look closely and you can still pick out fragments of the original Crucifixion scene: part of a face, a hand pierced by a nail, a hand holding a book, fabric, flowers and wood.
The Bells
The tower holds two bells, and between them their stories span over five centuries of the church’s life.
The older of the two dated from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. It was cast by Richard Mellour, a bellfounder from Nottingham who also served as Mayor of that city. Mellour was active between around 1480 and 1509, and his bells are known for their distinctive decorative style: fleur-de-lis stamps and characteristic “S”-shaped scrollwork. It was almost certainly cast on site, using a pit dug close to the church, as was common medieval practice.
The second bell was cast after the Civil War by George Oldfield, also from Nottinghamshire. It was given by Thomas Gaunt, the same benefactor who restored the font two years earlier, and bears the inscription “God Save the King, 1665”.
By 1907 both bells were in poor condition. A site visit by the John Taylor & Co. bellfoundry of Loughborough found that the tenor bell had only a partial wheel rim remaining, the treble had no wheel rim at all and was out of use entirely, and the bell frame was deemed unsound. Both bells were sent to Loughborough, recast using the metal from the originals. Their inscriptions and markings were carefully copied onto the new bells so that their historic character would not be lost.
The Chalice and Paten: The Gift of Lady Frances Kniveton
In 1641, Lady Frances Kniveton – second wife of Sir Gilbert Kniveton, and daughter of Sir Robert Dudley – gave this church a silver gilt chalice, paten and flagon of exceptional quality. The inscription on the underside reads: “The gift of Lady Frances Knifton to Knifton Church.”
Rev. Heather, who examined the plate carefully in the 1880s, was unstinting in his admiration describing the chalice as so elegant in its design that it could serve as a model for modern church furnishers. Lady Frances made similar gifts to churches at Bradley, Osmaston, Mugginton, Kirk Langley and Ashbourne, though the Ashbourne set has since disappeared.
These objects would have been used regularly in worship and still provide a direct connection to the generations of people who attended services here centuries ago. They are also among the most personal reminders of the Kniveton family’s long relationship with the church.
Pews and Gallery
Much of the interior that visitors notice first is Victorian rather than medieval. The carved poppy-head pews date from 1842, when the church was reordered. Their carved ends are among the most decorative features in the building.
The west gallery was also added during the nineteenth century. Originally it was reached by an outside staircase and doorway in the west wall. When the church was restored in 1907, the stairs were added in the tower and the entrance was moved inside. If you look carefully, you can still see traces of the earlier arrangement.
Together, the pews and gallery remind us that churches are never fixed in one moment of time. Every generation leaves its mark, and the Victorian generation changed the appearance of St Michael’s just as surely as the Normans and medieval builders did before them.