St Michael's. Parish Church   of Highworth Wiltshire



 
 

The church dates from the 13th century.  In 1861 / 62 a major restoration was carried out by the Victorians.
   

From the size and number of floor gratings in the side aisle it is certain that a warm air stove was originally sited in the church. This stove had to have been part of the first restoration works in 1861 / 1862 before the wet heating system was installed  c.1895.

 



A wall plaque in the church identifies the churchwardens, and artisans who worked
on the church in 1796. Not very often does a plumber get mentioned
by name.
What makes this church different from the other churches listed on this website is that details about  the heating system were discovered first in the archives at the Wiltshire Record Office. A faculty application was found dated 1895 and church documents had been deposited with the archive which showed that the firm of Skinner and Board from Bristol had installed the heating system.

Previously the Heritage Group have discovered important historical engineering equipment or systems by visiting churches at random when there was a  possibility that something of interest might be found there.  However, this visit was primarily to discover whether the original system still remained.

The good news is that all the original heating system was still installed and operational. From the documentation and illustrations found in the archive it is now possible to identify all  heating systems previously discovered which had their plant and equipment manufactured at the ironfoundry of Vincent Skinner in Stokes Croft  Bristol.

From the selection of various cast iron fittings that can be seen in the church it appears that most of the pipeline fittings are purpose made to suit the individual structural layout of each church building and its arrangement of pews.

The following pictures are a selection of the various cast iron fittings and pipework layouts found in St Michael's Church,
 



 



 
 
 




 


 



There were also three 10-row single bank, pipe coil heaters which have a distinctive gothic style pattern on each end header box.  
 




This type of  pipe coil heater can be seen in an illustration from a Skinner and Board's advertising brochure from that time period .
  

The most exciting item of equipment to have found would have been any of Skinner and Board's heating boilers.

Whether any of these boilers still exist is an intriguing question. If anyone knows where one still can be found please contact the Heritage Group.

 
 

JUNE  2003