St Michael and All Angels Church, Hawkshead

St Michael and All Angels Church stands in the village of Hawkshead in Cumbria. It is an active Anglican parish church built mainly of rubble stone with a slate roof. The church has a nave and chancel without division, north and south aisles, a vestry, a south porch and a west tower. Its exterior walls are whitewashed and the tower has battlements and pinnacles added in the 19th century. The church is listed Grade I and described by Hyde and Pevsner as one of the best Lake District churches. The church’s history goes back to a 12th-century chapel on the site. By about 1300 it had been extended to the length of the present church, and north and south aisles were added in 1500. In 1578 its status was raised from chapelry to parish, partly through the efforts of Edwin Sandys, who was born in Hawkshead and later became Archbishop of York. The interior walls were painted with biblical texts in 1680 by James Addison, repainted in 1711–12 by William Mackerath, and restored in 1875 by William Bolton. A new organ installed in 1965 allowed the creation of a chapel dedicated to St James. Inside, the church is thickly whitewashed and the five-bay arcades rest on round piers without capitals or bases. Wall paintings remain on the walls, and the north chapel contains a chest tomb dated 1578 for the parents of Archbishop Sandys. Elaborate monuments from St Dionis Backchurch in London were moved here in 1878. The east window’s stained glass is by Hardman, dating 1894, while windows on the south side were made by H. W. Lonsdale between 1884 and 1901. The churchyard holds a sundial dated 1693, listed at Grade II.