St. Michael’s church in Owermoigne

In addition to finding her family’s old homestead in England, my friend also found the parish church her ancestors would have attended, and I painted it from the photos she brought back. Working with these historic buildings, I end up “going back” to that time period when I paint!

St. Michael’s church is in the village of Owermoigne in Dorset, England. It’s not certain when the original church was built on this location, but the first rector was installed in 1333 (source: Weymouth-Dorset.co.uk). The west tower survives from the 15th century, and the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1883, keeping some medieval windows (source: British Listed Buildings). (The village and church seem to have something of a notorious past!)