There has been a church on the site of Michael le Belfrey Church Building from the 8th Century. The present building dates from the 1500's. Find out more below about the story of this historic building.
There have been Christians in York since Roman times and church buildings in this area since at least the year 627 when Bishop Paulinus baptised Edwin king of Northumbria. Saxon burials discovered in Petergate are evidence that St Michael's is of early origin. The "le Belfrey" either refers to the next-door Minster belfry or to an older church on this site which had a bell tower. It was controlled by the Minster's Dean and Chapter from 1294 for several hundred years. It is a parish church serving the local community. (The Minster is not a parish church.)
St Michael's was rebuilt between 1525 and 1537, during King Henry VIII's break with Rome. John Forman, the Minster's master mason was responsible for the Tudor gothic style with renaissance influence. It was, and still is, the largest parish church in the city, originally serving a wealthy community of merchants and craftsmen.
The building is rectangular, with a nave and two aisles. In the church are boards bearing the names of York Lord Mayors who lived within the parish, and information about Guy Fawkes who was baptised here in 1570.
The 1848 bell tower is a replica of the earliest known bell tower, first depicted in 1705. The west front was thoroughly "restored" in 1867 after houses attached to the church had been pulled down. Generally it represents what had stood earlier. The slender pillars separating the aisles from the nave have angels with shields showing Henry's crown and crossed swords or keys, which are the symbols of St Paul and St Peter. The lathe and plaster ceilings, originally painted blue, probably with gold stars, date back to 1766 and cost £24. The dark marble slab in the floor of the nave is believed to have been the original altar stone from the Minster brought to St Michael's in 1617.
John Etty designed the large Reredos with its four fluted Corinthian columns. His son William completed it in 1712 at a cost of £68. The communion rails are contemporary with this. Originally the Ten Commandments appeared in the centre. In 1924/6 the reredos was "beautified." The P.C.C. commissioned a copy of Zurbaran's "Adoration of the Shepherds" (school of Velasquez, original in the National Gallery) to replace the Ten Commandments. Queen Anne's coat of arms was moved from the top of the screen to the front of the gallery at the same time.
The choir stalls and the pulpit were removed from the chancel in 1973. There is now a modern pulpit, and a lectern made by Thompson's of Kilburn with their trademark mouse on its plinth, and a stage area for the musicians who lead our singing. The large early-eighteenth century stone memorial at the end of the south aisle - blocking out a previous window - is of Scarborough MP Robert Squires and his wife Priscilla. The 3-manual organ, with its oak carved case was built by John Denman in 1885.
Two periods of notable growth have occurred here in the last 200 years. William Richardson was vicar from 1771 to 1821. His powerful preaching urged people "to turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ". In 1785 the gallery was built for the bigger congregations. About 100 years later doors from the pews in the nave were used to form its front. Richardson founded the York Sunday Schools Committee. He visited the poor and cared for prisoners. He became known as the "Father of the York clergy".
There was talk of closure in the 1960's and of using the building for a museum. In 1973 Revd. David Watson, a gifted preacher, moved the half-mile from St Cuthbert's to St Michael's with a congregation which over eight years of his ministry had outgrown its premises. Faithful preaching of the Christian gospel, regular and believing prayer, trust in God's Holy Spirit, and good leadership resulted in sustaining and developing a dynamic witness within and beyond York which still continues today.
The present church community continues to emphasise the priority of mission and has a vision to be Serving God's Transformation of the North.
Parish church. 1525-37 with vestry, west front and bellcote of 1867. C19 alterations by G Fowler Jones.
MATERIALS: limestone ashlar with roofs of lead and stone slate.
PLAN: 6-bay continuous aisled nave and chancel with clerestory; east vestry; west porch and bellcote.
EXTERIOR: double moulded plinth to all sides. East end partly obscured by vestry: east window has 5 cinque-foiled lights and panel tracery in 2-centred head: north aisle east window is of two pairs of trefoiled ogee lights in traceried 4-centred head. North and south sides are articulated by 2-stage buttresses, those on north side only with gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles. Westernmost bay on each side has traceried double doors in 4-centred arch of 2 orders with side shafts, spandrels carved with Tudor flowers in quatrefoils, flanked by standards with crocketed pinnacles. Each remaining bay contains window similar to that in east end of north aisle, with moulded sillstring on south side only. South side has band of cusped lozenge panels enclosing armorial shields beneath windows. Windows have casement-moulded surrounds and hoodmoulds with return stops. Coved eaves string beneath plain parapet with moulded coping, returned at east end. Clerestory windows, two to each bay, have square heads and tripled trefoil headed lights. West end: crow-stepped gable. West door and window framed beneath 4-centred moulded arch with carved spandrels springing from 3-stage buttress piers with cross-gabled and crocketed pinnacles: arch surmounted by octagonal bellcote of paired cinquefoiled lights capped by pierced embattled parapet. West doorway similar to those in aisles has band of cusped lozenge panels beneath gabled doorhead with carved tympanum. West window repeats east window and aisle end windows repeat those on north and south sides, with moulded sillstrings. Octagonal stair turret at south west has moulded strings at plinth and sill levels, two slit lights, coved eaves string incorporating grotesque beasts, two tiers of blind traceried panels and band of blind quatrefoils at base of pointed octagonal roof.
INTERIOR: nave arcades of 4-centred arches on shafted piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases. Above, continuous hoodmould on heraldic angel stops and spandrels carved with quatrefoils enclosing roses, fruit, etc. Moulded clerestory string and trefoiled panels beneath windows. 3-bay reredos of raised and fielded panelling, articulated by fluted Composite columns with entablature and small segmental pediment filled with cartouche and palm fronts.
Bolection-moulded centre panel has painted representation of the Adoration of the Shepherds, outer panels the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Communion rails have bulbous balusters carved with foliage and spirals, bowed gates in centre, and heavy flat rail. At west end, gallery with panelled front reached by two staircases cased in raised and fielded panelling, with Gothick balustrades, plain serpentine handrails, wreathed at foot around column newels on shaped curtail steps. 6-panel doors at stair heads, shaped to fit pier responds, give access to gallery. 4-centred chamfered doorway at foot of south staircase, leads to turret.
Hatchment of Royal Arms, originally above reredos, attached to gallery front. Benefaction boards: in gallery, 2 in bolection moulded surrounds, 2 with 4-centred heads: in north aisle, 2 with semicircular heads. Lord Mayoral boards: beneath gallery, one 1711-1720, one 1764-1859, one 1872-1969. Glass re-arranged and restored in C19 and C20, includes mid C14 glass in East window and early C16 in aisle windows.
MONUMENTS AND BRASSES: include at east end: carved stone cartouche to Ann, wife of William Walker, d.1687; carved stone cartouche to John White, d.1716/7. North wall: pedimented tablet with floral side scrolls to Mary Grammer, d.1738; scrolled cartouche to Thomas James, d.1732; sarcophagus tablet to Baldwin Wake, MD, d.1842, signed by Flintoft. Brasses to Thomas Dawnay, d.1683; Frances, wife of William Farrer, d.1680/1, signed Joshua Mann. South aisle, east end: large wall monument to Sir Robert Squire, d.1707, and wife Priscilla, d.1711, two sculpted figures beneath swagged open pediment on fluted Corinthian pilasters; shaped tablet with cornice and floriated sides, to an infant Vavasour, d.1728; scrolled cartouche to Mary Woodyeare, nee Drake, d.1728. South wall: pilastered monument with cornice and apron, to Catherine and Christine North, d.1734; tablet with shield of arms to Sir Thomas Fothergill, d.1735; tablet with urn to John Blanshard, d.1770, and wife, Mary, d.1789; tablet with urn in broken pediment to children and wife, Elizabeth, d.1790, of John Metcalfe; separated monument with sarcophagus and military emblems to Lieutenant and Adjutant John Crossland of York City Regiment of Local Militia, d.1813, signed by Fishers, York; oval tablet of black marble to Mary Lawson, d.1774.