Ashfield District Council: St Michael and All Angels Underwood

St Michael and All Angels Underwood

This is a Grade II Listed Building.

The lych gate (archway through which the dead were carried in to the churchyard) is also a Grade II Listed Building.

St Michael and All Angels, Underwood,
Nottinghamshire.

Commissioned by Earl Cowper and built in Gothic style, with its massive tower this magnificent church would appear too grand for the small village for whom it was intended.

On entering the main body of the church, the eye is led down the nave to its impressive East Window, depicting the deep meaning of sacrifice, of our Lord and those who perished in World War I, and also paying tribute to their womenfolk.
St Michael and All Angels Church, Underwood.

In 1920 the clock was installed as a public memorial to the fallen.

In this photo you can see one of the clock faces on the Gothic tower.

The turret on the left of the tower has a winding staircase inside.

Pye Hill Colliery Headstock in the Churchyard

It is fitting that part of the old Headstock from Pye Hill Colliery, has found its final resting place in the grounds of St. Michael's as a permanent reminder of a once strong mining community, for whom it was built.
Dedication plaque on the headstock

Dedication plaque. It reads: A MEMORIAL TO PYE HILL NUMBER 1 COLLIERY. DEDICATED BY THE BISHOP OF SHERWOOD THE Rt. REVEREND B DARBY ON 28TH SEPTEMBER 1985

Who was St. Michael?

Unlike most saints, Michael is not a human being at all. He is a senior angel (usually called an archangel) described in the book of Daniel as a great prince. He is also mentioned in the Revelation to John.

Both references are military in context, suggesting that St.Michael is the commander of the heavenly army (his army of All Angels). In Revelation it is St.Michael's angels who defeat the dragon and drive Satan out of heaven. St.Michael is usually depicted standing over the dragon with a spear.

Christian tradition gives him four duties:

To fight against Satan.
To rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death.
To be the champion of God's people, the Jews in the Old Law, the Christians in the New Testament; therefore he was the patron of the Church, and of the orders of knights during the Middle Ages.
To call away from earth and bring men's souls to judgement

In the Middle Ages his feast day of September 29th, called Michaelmas, was one of the quarter-days when rents were paid, and the day when magistrates were elected. Geese were judged at their best for eating around Michaelmas, and so most families had one dressed for this day, possibly purchased from the Nottingham Goose Fair held around this date.