Church of St Michael the Archangel, Aldershot

The Church of St Michael the Archangel is the parish church for the town of Aldershot in Hampshire. Dating to the 12th century with later additions, there was almost certainly an earlier church on the site. The existing structure is a Grade II listed building and is located beside Manor Park.

The land on which St Michael's now stands was personally owned by Alfred the Great and when he died he left the land to the monks of Winchester Cathedral. The church was probably built sometime between 1120 and 1150.

The earliest mention of St Michael's church dates to 1121 and concerns wax for candles. The church is mentioned again in 1171 regarding an annual payment made by the parish of Aldershot to the Priory of St Swithun for the maintenance of three lights to burn continually before the High Altar there.

In 1399 the parish priest, John Bertone, was severely attacked while officiating in the church. By 1400 the church was in a state of collapse and Bishop William of Wykeham sequestrated the Rectory of Crondall to pay for the necessary repairs. However, this seems to have achieved little because the church was reportedly still in a poor condition some 80 years later. In 1481 John Awbrey pledged 'My Manor at Aldershot' for a loan from the London Charterhouse of £126 in order to restore the church. He and his wife are buried in the chancel.

The registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were first begun by William Shakford in 1571, and are still in use. During the Civil War a curate of the parish, Thomas Hollinshead, was ejected in 1641. In 1645 during the same conflict, Royalist troops invaded the village of Aldershot and set fire to it but St Michael's was spared the fire and survived.

There is a local legend that, after the Restoration, Nell Gwyne, making a journey from Portsmouth to London in 1678, stopped over in the area where she gave birth to a stillborn child of Charles II, with medical help coming from 'Old Mother Squall' who lived near the church; the child was said to have been buried under a tree in the churchyard. It was claimed that for this assistance the King made an annual grant of £200 to the church, but no record of this has ever been found.

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