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Bramcote
St Michael

History

St Michael’s was consecrated on 12 December 1861.

Bramcote had a population of approximately 80 in 1700 but 350 in 1800 and around 720 by 1851. The church was soon too small for the population and the land on which the old church stood was too restricted, and on too much of a hill, to build a new church on the same site.

A parish meeting was convened in 1859 at which it was decided to build a new church, large enough for the growing parish, and to demolish the old church. The patron, George Savile Foljambe petitioned the Bishop of Lincoln – the Archdeaconry of Nottingham was in the diocese of Lincoln at this time – to inform him that ‘the ancient church of Bramcote being insufficient for the accommodation of the parishioners it was resolved at a meeting … that the existing church with the consent of your Lordship be entirely taken down’.

John Sherwin Gregory

Work on building the new church commenced in 1861. John Sherwin Gregory Esq, one of the churchwardens, gave the land for the church, as the inscription, still in the church, shows, he also along with others contributed financially towards building costs.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid by Mrs Catherine Sherwin Gregory on 7 March 1861. The inscription reads:

The church was consecrated on 12 December 1861 by the Bishop of Lincoln. The first vicar was Rev Thomas William Bury.

In 1862 the Archdeacon of Nottingham, the Venerable George Wilkins, granted a faculty permitting demolition of the old church, and re-use of part of the stone in building the boundary wall of the new church, and to dispose of the rest. However, the final section of the faculty added that the exception to this grant was that the tower should be retained ‘to house the monuments’.

It remains unclear why in 1861 it was decided to take down the old church completely, but in 1862 it was decided to retain the tower.

In 1912 it was reported that the church had 300 sittings, that there were 110 children on the roll of the church school, 150 and 150 in the Sunday School. Over the previous twelve months there had been 19 baptisms and eight confirmations. The church school was demolished in 1917 and pupils transferred to the new school built in 1884. This is now a day nursery having been replaced with the school on Cow Lane in 1980.

A spire fund was opened in 1922 so there must have been problems with its maintenance.

In 1928 it was discovered that no application had been made to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in respect of the new church and no ‘instrument’ had been published by them declaring the new church to be a substitute for the old. The church had been consecrated but the building was not automatically regarded as a place where marriages could take place. On 5 February 1928 an application was made to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by the Bishop and the three patrons of the church, belatedly seeking the substitution of the new church for the old:

INSTRUMENT substituting the new Church of Saint Michael, situate within the Chapelry of Bramcote, in the Parish of Attenborough, in the County of Nottingham and in the Diocese of Southwell, for the old Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, situate within and hitherto being the Church of the same Chapelry.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England send greeting:

Whereas a new church has been built within the Chapelry of Bramcote, in the Parish of Attenborough, in the County of Nottingham and in the Diocese of Southwell, and has been consecrated and is known as the Church of Saint Michael.

And whereas the Right Reverend Bernard Oliver Francis Bishop of Southwell, as such Bishop, Herbert Francis Smith, of Didlington Hall, in the County of Norfolk, a Colonel in His Majesty’s Army, Ruthven Frederic Ruthven Smith, of Number 1, Lombard Street, in the City of London, Esquire, and William Frederic Smith, of Coneybeare, Northam, in the County of Devon, Esquire, as the Patrons of the Vicarage of the said Parish of Attenborough with the said Chapelry of Bramcote annexed, and the Reverend John Buchanan Fraser, Clerk in Holy Orders, as the Vicar or Incumbent of the said Vicarage of Attenborough with the said Chapelry of Bramcote annexed, have by an Instrument under their hands, bearing date on or about the eighth day of February, in the year One thousand nine hundred and twenty eight, certified to us, the said Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, that it would be for the convenience of the said Chapelry of Bramcote, that the said new Church of Saint Michael, situate within such Chapelry, should be substituted for the old church (known as the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels) of the same Chapelry.

Now, therefore, we the said Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, in exercise and execution of the power or authority in that behalf contained in the Act of the eighth and nine years of Her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, chapter seventy, and in the Act of nineteenth and twentieth years of Her said Majesty, chapter fifty-five, and of all other powers or authorities in anywise enabling us in the same behalf, do by this Instrument under our Common Seal, with the consent (testified as hereinafter mentioned) of the said Bernard Oliver Francis, Bishop of Southwell, and of the said Herbert Francis Smith, Ruthven Frederick Ruthven Smith and William Frederick Smith and of the said John Buchanan Fraser, hereby declare that the said new Church of Saint Michael, situate within the said Chapelry of Bramcote, and duly consecrated as aforesaid, shall be and the same is hereby substituted for the said old church of the same Chapelry, and that such new church shall henceforth be the church of the said Chapelry of Bramcote in lieu of the said old church of the same Chapelry as fully in all respects as if the said new church of Saint Michael, so hereby substituted had been originally the church of the same Chapelry, and we the said Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, in further pursuance and exercise of the powers and authorities aforesaid and with consents as aforesaid (testified as herein under mentioned) do hereby transfer all the endowments, emoluments and rights of or belonging to the said old church of the said Chapelry of Bramcote, or of or belonging to the Incumbent thereof, to the said new Church of Saint Michael (now being by virtue of these presents the church of the said Chapelry of Bramcote) and to the Incumbent thereof and his successors for ever.

In witness whereof to these presents we, the said Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, have set our Common Seal, and the said Bernard Oliver Francis, Bishop of Southwell, has set his hand and affixed his Episcopal Seal, and the said Herbert Francis Smith, Ruthven Frederic Ruthven Smith and William Frederic Smith and the said John Buchanan Fraser have respectively set their hands and affixed their seals, this twenty-third day of February in the year One thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight.

New vestries were added at the west end in 1952.

In 1967 Bramcote was separated from Attenborough and Chilwell to become a separate parish. Repairs to the church were required at the time, when it was found that some poor building in 1861 had rendered the building in danger of permanent damage.

A church centre was added in 1992.