Listed Building: HERTAGE CENTRE (1376107)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE BRIDGE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/80 (East side) 28/07/55 Heritage Centre (Formerly Listed as: BRIDGE STREET (East side) Church of St Michael (no longer in ecclesiastical use)) GV II Parish Church of St Michael, now Heritage Centre. C15, 1496, 1678 and 1849-50, stripped of furnishings 1972-5. By James Harrison. The stonework is largely 1849-50; yellow sandstone with grey slate roof. 3-stage west tower, 3-bay nave, 2-bay chancel and former vestry. EXTERIOR: the south end of the Bridge Street Row passes through the open first stage of the tower, also serving as the west porch, with stone steps up to the main Row north and down to the pavement, south. The buttresses are octagonal to the first stage, diagonal to the second stage and clasping to the third stage; a string course at each stage; the second stage has a 2-light window with simple tracery to each face; a rectangular loop above the north window, a clock-face west and a blank clock-face panel south; the third stage has a paired bell-opening under an ogee hood to each face, a course of carved panels and a stringcourse with gargoyles under a crenellated parapet with 8 crocketed pinnacles; a wind vane. The west window to the north aisle has 2 lights with simple tracery; the diagonally-boarded pair of oak west doors have ornate wrought-iron hinges. The south side of the nave has one 2-light and two 3-light traceried windows; the chancel has two 2-light traceried windows. The east end has a diagonally-boarded oak door on wrought-iron hinges, a 4-light reticulated east window with stained glass and a 3-light window with stained glass by Clayton and Bell to the north aisle; the north face is featureless and partly built against. The walls are crenellated; the chancel's gable-coping has a finial cross; carved heads as mould-stops. The stonework and details are damaged by sandblasting c1975. INTERIOR: under repair and not fully inspected, has a C15 north arcade with octagonal piers, a chancel roof of 1496, narrower than the present building which was widened in 1678, and a monument to Roger Comberbach, 1771 by Benjamin Bromfield. Listing NGR: SJ4058766102