The narrow street on the south, Bayley Lane, gives us a succession of
picturesque partial views but no general one, while on the north the
rather formal avenue dividing the churchyard obscures much of the
structure. On the whole, the most comprehensive prospect is to be had
from the north-east, at the lower end of Priory Row. But no general
point of view is needed, external or internal, to enable us to
understand the plan or arrangement, which is almost as simple in form
as a village church.

The typical English church plan consists of a nave with aisles, a long
unaisled chancel with square east end, porches or doors on north and
south, and a western tower, and this, save for its apsidal east end,
but amplified by accretions in the form of chapels belonging to the
many Gilds of the city, is the plan of St. Michael's.

In no part, however, do we find the chapels so set as to produce a
pseudo-cruciform plan.

Before the latest restoration the walls were entirely of the local red
sandstone, very similar in quality and appearance to that of which
Chester Cathedral was built, and the extent of its decay, especially
on the tower, was as grievous. Hardly a piece of external moulding or
carving preserved its original profile or form, and some of the tower
buttresses had lost so large a proportion of their substance not far
above ground that they appeared to hang to the walls rather than
support them. All save the aisles, which were refaced in the sixties,
have now been cased with Runcorn Stone nearly the same in colour and
much harder in texture.

The special glory of the church is its steeple. No doubt intentionally