A virtual tour of St Michael's church
​The second station - the nave

The tour takes us down the centre aisle between the pews to the second station at the floor slab in memory of Michael Johnson, Samuel Johnson’s father Photo. The Latin text was composed by Samuel and the original monument (of which this is a copy) was paid for it by writing "Rasselas or the Prince of Abysinnia" and selling it to publishers for £100.  To get to this point we will have walked over the commemorative slab of “Joseph Adey, Gent. And his wife Mary”, praising their devotion to family and the needy. Photo​

​To the left in the south wall there is the “Resurrection” window that shows the resurrected Jesus appearing to the women who came to his tomb on the first Easter morning, commemorating the most important event in the Christian story Photo

On the right there are two simple “Sanctus” windows containing the words of the heavenly song of praise to God from various places in the Old and New Testaments.  Photos First angel iconography. Say something re the pew kneelers

At the eastward end of the south aisle we have the “Jacob” window illustrating the old testament story of Jacob. The central section shows his dream of angels ascending to and from heaven. Photo ​

Next to it we have the striking marble memorial to Louis Hayes Petit, a former MP and member of a wealthy Lichfield family Photo. The area in front of this window and monument is now a place for quiet prayer and reflection, where one can light a candle either as an act of prayer, or in remembrance of a loved one. 
​On the east end of the north aisle to the right, there is a simple wooden pulpit embellished with carvings of angels Photo, and the door that can be seen leads into the vestry - the clergy robing room, now doubling as the parish office. ​Something re banners? Photos?​

When the church was first built it looked very different. In the 12th century it consisted of just of the nave, without the north and south aisles, and the chancel was only about half the current length. There was no tower. It was also not as high as at present, with the whole church being the height of the current chancel. Looking up at the internal wall of the tower at the back of church, a vague outline of the original roof line can be seen on the back wall, and the narrow (lancet) opening was originally an external window Photo.

Between the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries the tower and the north and south aisles were added, and the nave and chancel were raised through the addition of the clerestories - the windows high up the wall. The chancel was also extended to its present length at some point, with the addition of the large east window. From the time of the reformation through to the nineteenth century it remained substantially the same, although various parts were rebuilt from time to time - including the spire after it blew down in 1594. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a great deal of work was carried out on the church to make it conform to what was, at the time, taken to be the most appropriate gothic form. As this mainly concerned the chancel we will leave discussion of the changes until we reach the third station

The William Salt library contains a number of somewhat idealized drawings of the church in the 1840s, and we link to two of them below. The first shows a view of the pews from the back of church, and the triple deck pulpit and reading desk can be seen in the background that makes the present affair look decidedly modest. This can also be seen in second drawing which shows a view looking back out of the chancel (where there were also pews) towards the pulpit and towards the back of the church.
Drawing 1. View from back of church 1841
Drawing 2. View from the chancel towards the back of church 1844
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Station 3 - Chancel