Fulwell: St Michael & St George
Diocese of London
Church, 623213
http://www.stmichaelsfulwell.co.uk/Overview
Grid reference: TQ 149 717
The building is a fairly typical rendering of the early Perpendicular style so favoured in the Edwardian period, although of impressive scale. The west end of the church facing Wilcox Road is dominated by a large 5 light window with spiky tracery. The church was built in 1913 to designs by J S Adkins and it has had no significant external alteration since construction.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave of 7 bays (with partition to create lower hall and gallery) and 1-bay chancel in one, north and south aisles, Lady chapel, office, vestry and baptistery.
Dimensions:
Nave 75 ft (24m) x 25 ft (8m).
Footprint of Church buildings: 749 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was built in 1913 to designs by J S Adkins and it has had no significant external alteration since construction. The church is not oriented and instead lies roughly north to south.
Exterior Description
The building is a fairly typical rendering of the early Perpendicular style so favoured in the Edwardian period, although of impressive scale. The west end of the church facing Wilcox Road is dominated by a large 5 light window with spiky tracery. Two gabled porches flank the apsidal west baptistery, which has three pairs of trefoiled two-light windows. The roofs all have floriate finial crosses.
The aisle windows are three-lights with trefoiled cusped heads within four-centred heads, the clearstorey windows identical but set within recessed pointed arches. There are single lancets in the chancel side walls, abut the east end is blind, with a large recessed pointed arch containing decorative brickwork around a cross. Underneath this is a triple recess, the niches empty.
There is a similar large recessed pointed arch in the east wall of the Lady chapel, which contains an empty, ornately carved canopied niche. The gables are decorated with stone banding and corner pinnacles, and have floriate finial crosses.
A little more vertical emphasis is provided by a slender open belcote of two stages at the west end of the chancel, and rather less elegantly by a chimney rising from the south chapel. A long low vestry stretches away south from the chapel. It has domestic Tudor-style windows within stone frames, and a shallowly pitched roof.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
North aisle from east to west:
St Anne, ‘Marian Gillam March 11th 1960 RIP’
St Thomas of Aquinas
St Francis, ‘Francis A H Andrews, Churchwarden for 36years, Died 17th August 1964 aged 84’; the glass is brightly coloured and typical of the 1960’s.
Stained Glass
South aisle from east to west:
Our Lady and St Peter on either side of Christ ascending.
Joseph ‘Frances Bollom January 12th 1961 RIP’
Stained Glass
West baptistery: 6 scenes of Christ.
‘To the glory of God and in memory of William Martin Spencer Priest and Founder of this Church At rest March 6th 1927’
Building Materials
Brick
Yellow and red brick with red brick dressings
Stone
Dressings
Slate
Roofs
Interior
Interior Description
The arcading in the nave is complex, The nave arcades themselves have pointed arches worked with a hollow chamfer springing from clustered shafts with moulded capitals.
The pointed arches visible in the clearstorey are repeated inside, and there are slender pilasters to the roof corbels. The roof itself has arch braces and a collar supporting a slightly pointed barrel-vaulted boarded ceiling.
At the east end of the north aisle there is the blessed sacrament altar which has a simple communion rail, behind the altar is a curtained storage area. The south aisle itself is truncated due to the chapel to the east and the hall to the west. It now houses the font (albeit somewhat awkwardly) and the Stations of the Cross originate here.
The projecting Lady chapel is of four bays which have been glazed off to create a separate room. There are two windows in the south wall (the eastern two bays are blind as the vestry opens off it to the south) and one in the west wall, each of two lights with a quatrefoil in the head; the west wall also has a large rose window below which is a doorway to a small lobby and alternative entrance.
The chapel has a raised platform with mosaic floor for the altar. The south wall has a large projecting piscina. There is a communion rail dividing the body of the chapel from the altar area. A door in the south wall leads to the choir vestry and office. The focus of the church is without doubt the east wall, which is filled almost entirely with a huge painted reredos. The sanctuary is on a raised carpeted concrete platform; reached by three marble steps with a further three leading to the high altar area before the reredos.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
Panelled oak table with inlaid decoration, possibly of a piece with the reredos.
Reredos
Enormous painted and ornately decorated reredos, apparently originally from Catholic Bavaria, with a central scene of Christ surrounded by angels appearing to a cluster of figures beneath them. Varying sized figures feature in niches both to the sides of the central scene and also in a row below it. It is understood that the local congregation helped to paint the reredos.
Lectern
19th Century
Plain panelled dark wood
Font (object)
Plain stone, octagonal, large plinth. Standing in south aisle. Wooden cover with plaque – In memory of Mary Wilcox May 17th 1971.
Rail
Simple, wooden.
North aisle ‘In Memoriam Frederick George Piercey, Parish Clerk. Died 1st April 1940 RIP’
Lady Chapel. ‘In memory of Dorothy M Crabb for 36 years a devoted worker for this church died Sept 14th 1967 RIP’
Organ (object)
Unknown builder, believed to be 19th century. Installed by Alphonse Noterman in 1913.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 149 717
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Submit a change
If you notice something incorrect or missing, please explain it in the form below and submit it to our team for review.