St Michael's Story

Any living building such as our church evolves to meet the needs of the people who use it. Parts of the building certainly date to the Norman church which we believe originally covered the area which is now considered to be the choir stalls and altar area of the current church.

The door lintel (above) known as the Houghton Beasts looks pre-conquest and offers a tantalising hint that an earlier, Saxon building once stood on the site.

Dick's parish history, covered elsewhere on this site gives an excellent, detailed account of Houghton and the changes that have occured, most before the development of accurate pictorial records. What we have assembled on this page represents some of the oldest images of the church available.

This map, dated 1576, shows the various towns and villages of that time, the image of the church probably isn't meant to be taken as an acurate rendition of the building, but rather an indication that there was a significant church structure there.

The engraving below is dated 1784, and is the earliest accurate image of the building we know to exist. Although significantly different from the current building, it is still recognisable as St Michaels. The spire is still in place and the ground falls away much more steeply at the western end of the building (left hand side of the image). The chantry, which is now the vestry and office appears exactly the same as now, but the low, shallow pitched roof along with the much lower tower give the building a squat appearance. The churchyard appears to be totally devoid of grave stones at this time.

Just above the south door there is a structure on the roof, enlarging this on the original engraving shows what appears to be a clock (below).

If this was, indeed a clock, it is likely to be the earliest public clock in the town. The fact that it is not shown in later images may offer an idea on either it's accuracy or it's apparently rather precarious mounting!

The image below, for which we only have a date of the early 1800's, shows the church with current tower added, but before the roof was raised and the knave widened. It also shows a door in the north wall, of which there is no current trace. A clock has now appeared in the church tower, doubtless to replace the one which was above the south door. The tower clock is still there today and chimes both hours and quarters. Today we have access to accurate time keeping as a matter of course, but when this church clock was first erected, the town would have worked to it's chimes which would have been heard over a much wider area in those quieter, pre-industrial days.

Of course at the time what is now the Kepier Hall was then the Kepier Grammar School, founded in part by Bernard Gilpin, rector of St Michaels in the mid 1500's. The church and school continued this close association until 1923 when the school moved to larger premises. The image below shows some of the boys playing in the churchyard, a scene reminiscent of the current youth group!

In 1856 the church was modified yet again as shown below to take on the appearance that it has today. Most of the features in this picture are still there today, even the trefoils along the ridge tiles are still in place, although they have been re-seated several times since. It is impossible to know if the artist engraved exactly what he saw or used some artistic licence here, but the absence of the mature sycamore trees which currently surround St Michael's makes the view somewhat more stark than the current vista.

The earliest images we have of the church interior date from 1859, shortly after the last major reshaping of the building. They show the interior pretty much as it is today, the pews certainly appear to be the same!

For those familiar with the interior of St. Michael's you will notice this image was drawn before the current choir stalls and screen were installed. There are also some images on the tower wall above the knave which probably have been excerts from the scriptures, most likely the 10 commandments. A closer look at the detail in the images below shows a totally different east window, with 5 panels apparently showing 5 upright figures and a lower, less intrusive high altar than is currently in place.

Most of the images shown in this section come from a collaboration between Durham universtiy and the British Library who have loaded these pictures, and many more at http://www.dur.ac.uk/picturesinprint/ the site covers much of the North East and is well worth a visit.