St Michael's Loft Museum

Last updated Wednesday, 10 June, 2026

The St. Michael’s Loft Museum is located in the room built over the Lady Chapel in the 15th Century and was originally a chapel dedicated to the Archangel St Michael, a common medieval dedication for high places. Upper rooms in English churches are often found above porches or transepts but here at Christchurch, positioned high over the east end, the museum location is unique in the whole of England. This room may also have been a place of study with the altar at one end and a library at the other. Two staircases twist their way up and these are now used as a one-way system of access and exit from the museum.

The views have long been celebrated and well worth the climb. To the north is the town of Christchurch, the castle ruins, churchyard and River Avon; to the south Hengistbury Head, the harbour and River Stour. The original name for the town, Twynham means “the settlement between rivers”.

Almost all of the contents of the museum are relevant to the Priory Church.  For example, two large stones are original to the room (against the East wall), their shape suggests that they may have stood vertically over the Lady Chapel vault, cantilevering the weight of a stone altar back to the wall.

The first reference to St Michael’s Loft becoming a school comes in 1662. In a letter to Bishop Morley of Winchester, the ‘Council of Sixteene’ (the Priory’s governing body) states “praying the Bishop’s licence to erect and settle a school in a spacious waste room at the east end of the Church called St Michael’s Loft”. Clearly the petition was successful as later that year the Parish Register records “St Michael’s Loft shall for ever hereafter and is hereby set apart for a free grammar school to be fitted for that purpose as articled and agreed upon.”  There were places for up to 10 boys, who have left their mark on the walls by the windows where they sharpened their quills. In 1867, as part of a growing movement towards greater regulation, governance and public access to schooling, Priory Church School in Wick Lane was built. Two years later the school in the Loft closed its doors to students. 

It became an empty unused space until 1975 when the Reverend Canon Basil Trevor-Morgan became Vicar of Christchurch and had the idea of a museum; with contributions from Mr Len Newham (the Priory’s stonemason) and volunteers, work began to prepare the space. Finally, in 1978 the museum opened.  Some of the most popular exhibits have included the models - that of the Priory Church dates from the 1930s. Originally displayed in the church, Brian Wright added the claustral buildings in 2014 (based on the painting by Maurice King on show in the museum) and also modelled the schoolroom along with the bell-ringing mechanism and West Tower.

The museum of today is in no small part due to the vision of Reverend Canon Trevor-Morgan. But, while it took just one man to have an idea, it has taken many more to sustain the reality. Countless people, many of whose names have gone unrecorded, have added to, developed, shaped and secured St Michael’s Loft and its eclectic collection of exhibits. And the visitors too have had a role in bringing the museum to life – with personal recollections, snippets of new information or simply by showing their enjoyment of the room, its views and contents.

Today the Museum depends on a rota of volunteers to annually open the doors from Easter to the end of October and allow over 5,000 visitors a year to access this elevated space. There are over 70 steps up to the museum, this, sadly, means that some visitors are unable to access the museum.  As part of the Parish Masterplan, we hope in the not-too-distant future to site a new museum at ground level, the funding campaign is underway.

The museum opens* 11am to 4pm Mondays and Saturdays, 11am to 1.30pm on Tuesdays and 1.30pm to 4pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

Secluded, secreted, secure – the museum (and many of the exhibits within) remains wonderfully, surprisingly, enigmatic. We hope you enjoy your visit.

Peter Hellawell, St. Michael’s Loft Museum Volunteers

* Please note we can only open when a museum volunteer is available.