The Parish of St Michael, Glentworth

Information about St Michael.

September 29 - Saint Michael and All Angels
(Commonly Called Michaelmas Day)

This feast day has been held since the early days of the Church and celebrates all those angels who help, guide, guard and protect us from the assaults of those principalities, powers and dominions opposed to the will of God. Michael is the chief angel called to this task; hence, the dedication of this feast day in his name. In Hebrew, Michael means "Who is like God". Unlike Lucifer, better known as Satan, Michael was not blinded by pride from the gifts God had given him. Michael is the angel who fought against Satan, throwing him out of Heaven. Michael is the patron saint of Police Officers.

Information about the Church building and its history.

Directions: Glentworth lies just west of the B1398 "Cliff road", and is well signposted from both the A15 and the A631 Gainsborough-Caenby Corner road.

Standing long and slender at the hub of a compact under-cliff village, the varied masonry of St. Michael’s outside walls proclaims it as a building of three basic periods. Oldest by far is the slim Anglo-Saxon tower, a marked contrast with the hefty tower of the same period at Harpswell and indeed one of the best in the Deanery. Its double-arched upper windows, the tier of smaller "keyhole" windows below, and its alternate long and short corner stones are all typical of the work of Saxon builders. The large traceried window in its western wall, however, was inserted in mediaeval times, while the clock on its eastern face is probably Georgian - it came from Pudsey Methodist Church in Yorkshire, and was placed here to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Below it can be seen the original roofline of the Saxon nave, with its characteristically steep pitch.

That Saxon nave has long since disappeared, and the middle section of the present church (distinguished by its regular masonry), is the product of Georgian and Victorian rebuildings. But the eastern end, with its rougher stonework and rectangular, mansion-like windows, is largely Elizabethan, though it incorporates a fine mediaeval "priest’s door", designed to allow the parson direct access to the altar area. Such Elizabethan work in churches is uncommon, and to discover its purpose we too must enter St. Michael’s.

To the left, on entering, is the Saxon tower arch; while to the right is the bright, well-kept nave with its array of Victorian stained glass. On looking towards the altar, however, the reason for the Elizabethan extension is revealed. For there stands the huge and imposing monument of Sir Christopher Wray, the first Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Chief Justice, and it was he who rebuilt the chancel to house his tomb. On the way to view it, notice the leaf "carving" on the pillars of the chancel arch: though hailed by some learned guidebooks as mediaeval stone-sculpture, this is in fact a plaster of paris imitation, probably belonging to the Georgian restoration.

Sir Christopher’s sumptuous alabaster monument is one of the finest in Lincolnshire. His effigy, in its red judge’s robes and collar of office, lies beneath an arch flanked by columns and obelisks, against a background embossed with emblems of mortality - a skull and crossbones, hour-glass, gravedigger’s spades and extinguished torches. High above kneels his armoured son and heir, Sir William, while beside and slightly beneath him lies his wife Anne, in her black dress, ruff, and stiffened hood or "head-rail": below kneel their four daughters, the two elder rather more elaborately dressed than their sisters: Frances (second from the right) married two successive aristocratic husbands, and appears again on both their monuments in the little church at Snarford near Faldingworth, eight miles to the south-east.

A Yorkshireman by birth, Sir Christopher served as Speaker of the House of Commons before becoming Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Justice. He acquired the ownership of Glentworth by marrying a wealthy heiress - Anne Girlington, widow of Robert Brocklesby - yet the Latin inscription on his tomb does not even mention her name. Instead, it sings his praises as "the glory of our legal system", playing on the punning resemblance of the name "Wray" to the Latin "re" (meaning "in business") and the French "vrai" ("truth").

The Yorkshire Judge founded a great Lincolnshire dynasty, and his descendants’ pride in his achievements is proclaimed on the monument against the opposite wall. Equally impressive in its way, this commemorates his great-great-grandaughter, Elizabeth Viscountess Castleton, who died in 1714. Beneath the spotted Dalmatian dog crest of her husband’s family, three winged cherubs peer out of an elaborate tent, while two more stand wailing on either side - a reminder, perhaps, that Elizabeth’s only child died young. Her estates eventually passed to the Earls of Scarborough, builders of the redbrick Georgian Hall which still stands on the outskirts of the village. Just visible behind it is a grey stone wing, the scanty remains of the Elizabethan mansion built by Glentworth’s most remarkable resident, Sir Christopher Wray.

Before leaving St. Michael’s, spare a thought for a humbler and more tragic parishioner - Anne Parks, commemorated by a black tombstone near the churchyard war memorial cross. She died in 1850 at the early age of twenty-nine, all too soon after her marriage, and her grim epitaph reads:

"Oh! Cruel Death that would not be Denyd
But Broke the Bonds of Love so lately Tied
No Sinner can Repent too soon
I found it Night before it was Noon"


Access:     St. Michael’s is normally open during daylight hours.



Text about the church building is written by Charles Kightly and copyright is held by West Lindsey District Council Tourism Development Office. Reproduced on this page with their kind permission. Please visit their website for more information.WLDC Tourism Office.