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Parish Church of:
Michaels Mount, St
The small church or chapel of St. Michael, originally built in 1044, by Edward the Confessor, consists of chancel and nave, divided by a screen bearing the shields of St Aubyns and a central battlemented tower containing 6 bells, of which the third is dated 1784-5, and the tenor 1640, the others have inscriptions in Old English letters; the sixth bell only is hung, and two are broken; in one of the angles of the tower is a small turret projecting from and rising above the battlements, and commonly called “St Michael's chair” but probably the remains of a stone lectern of ancient date; the seats are all of carved oak, and at the west end is a fine organ, the reredos is of rare and beautiful alabaster carved with scriptural representations, three of which were brought from Rome; the windows are filled with costly stain glass, and there is a fine chandelier, added in 1811, ornamented with groups of St. George and the Dragon and the Virgin and Child; a fragment o the
inscribed tombstone of one of the priors has been found, and another stone conjectured to have covered the remains of Sir John Arundell, of Trerice, slain in a skirmish with the Lancastrians on the neighbouring sands, and buried in this church in 1471; beneath the east end is a stone vault, approached by a flight of ten steps in the south wall, in which were found the remains of a man of great size, after was re-interred in the body of the church : the structure is a bout 70 feet long by 20 wide and has 60 sittings.
On the sands near MARAZION is Chapel Rock, where a chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is said to have once stood, and where it is said pilgrims offered their orisons at the shrine of St. Michael.
N.B. Denied access to photograph interior of church.
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