Long Stratton – St. Michael’s Church

Long Stratton was once formed of two villages, the parish of St. Michael’s in the north and St. Mary’s in the south. The church here is mostly from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, likely replacing an earlier building located on the same site. The heritage of the church, which was originally known as St. Michael’s and All Saints, is though recognised as it’s Grade I listed.

There was also another nearby church (and very nearby, it’s about a two minute walk away), St. Peter’s, but this was demolished in 1520 after it fell into disuse. The parish of St. Peter had merged with St. Michael under the reign of King Henry VIII and its location is visible in the above photo. Quite why there were ever two churches so close, I’m not entirely sure.

The tower is contemporary with the rest of the church, but is a relatively short affair. There was once more of a village that surrounded the church, but much of this has been lost and the manor house was demolished in the late sixteenth century.

The chancel end of the church, with this section being built in 1487, under the supervision of the rector John Cowall.

There’s quite a chunky buttress at the chancel end of the church.

Despite the tower being quite low, the church still doesn’t feel entirely out of proportion. I do wonder though if there were ever plans to build higher than this.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a run of bad luck in getting into the churches run by the Long Stratton and Pilgrim Team Ministry, and it seems so have some others. The situation isn’t ideal and hopefully the buildings will be opened up again when this current health crisis goes away.

A few churches seem to allow this in their graveyards and personally I’m not entirely convinced that it’s appropriate so near to graves. Anyway, it’s a lovely little church in what feels quite a remote countryside location, although in reality it’s just a short walk into the town of Long Stratton.