With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner has recorded the elevation of a classical steeple, apparently with a rusticated door or window at the foot of the tower and a tall arched window or recess above, with pinnacles around a drum and lantern on a circular or polygonal plan, topped by a narrow spire. The slight form to its left is presumably a related detail. The inscription appears to be ‘Michl’, implying a dedication to St Michael, but no match has yet been established to a corresponding church in the Midlands or elsewhere. There are points in common with the London churches of St Alfege’s, Greenwich, St Magnus the Martyr and St Mary-le-Bow, and All Saints, Oxford, but also significant differences.
The sketches on immediately adjacent pages show Chester (see under folio 14 verso;
D22176), where a St Michael’s Church – redundant and now the History and Heritage centre – stands on Bridge Street, having been largely rebuilt in 1849–50 to incorporate earlier work from the fifteenth century if not earlier;
1 its three-stage Gothic tower bears no resemblance to the structure Turner records here.
