Church of St. Michael and All Angels

Church of St. Michael and All Angels

This parish church presents a complex building history described by Pevsner as 'a happy puzzle for the antiquarian'. The sequence of construction spans several centuries: a nave-and-chancel church of around 1200 with a small west tower or belfry and possibly transepts; a south porch and south-west chapel added in the later 13th century; aisles constructed in the early 14th century (a chantry was endowed in 1331), which incorporated the earlier porch and chapel; a present porch dating to around 1400, later truncated; a nave roof reduced in pitch and belfry rebuilt in the 16th or 17th century; a north aisle extension of around 1845; a vestry added in 1870; the east end rebuilt in 1884; and a further partial rebuild of the north aisle extension around 1900.

The building is constructed from squared stone of varying colour and quality with cut dressings. The roof to the nave is low-pitched and felted, whilst the chancel is covered in graduated Lakeland slates and the porch has a stone roof. The plan consists of an aisled nave with south porch and a chancel with a small north vestry.

The west end features a central projecting turret with small loops carrying a belfry with twin square-headed openings to east and west and single openings to north and south, topped with a pyramidal stone cap. Flanking the turret are tall two-light windows of 1870 and heavy stepped west-facing angle buttresses which formed the corner of the earlier, less wide nave; the other parts of these buttresses can be seen in the masonry of the added aisles. A blocked window appears in the north aisle, a small chamfered lancet in the south aisle, and there is a diagonal stepped south-west buttress.

The gabled projecting south porch displays a hollow-chamfered arch under a moulded hood, probably re-set, between irregular buttresses formed from cut-down side walls. A block sundial dated 17.. is positioned above. Behind this is a shallower but taller gabled projection, which is the south end of the older porch with lower courses of diagonal buttresses surviving. The interior contains stone benches and a vault on chamfered ribs, with late 19th-century double doors in an arch of two continuous chamfers. To the west is a 19th-century two-light window with the head of an older lancet above and flower-carved stone to the right. To the east are a chamfered plinth, a stepped buttress, three 19th-century windows and a diagonal stepped buttress. A five-light window with a Geometrical-traceried head cut from a single slab occupies the east end of the aisle.

The north side of the nave shows, in its older west part, two stepped buttresses and two 19th-century windows. The middle section, dating to around 1900, contains three two-light windows. The projecting gabled east part of around 1845 has two two-light windows with renewed tracery.

The chancel south wall displays a late 19th-century double-chamfered priest's door beneath a tablet reading 'ALEX DAVISON ESQ / impropriator / repaired this chancel 1823', and three restored lancets. A massive irregular clasping buttress occupies the south-east corner. The east end contains three stepped lancets and a tablet inscribed 'EMERSON MUSCHAMP BAINBRIDGE / OF FELTON HALL / 1884', with a coped gable topped by a finial cross.

The interior features a five-bay north arcade of double-chamfered arches with chamfered hoodmoulds resting on octagonal columns with moulded capitals; the eastern respond is an earlier semicircular arch. The south arcade comprises a double-chamfered west arch on semicircular responds (perhaps re-set), a length of circa 1200 nave wall containing the original south doorway with a chamfered arch on shafted jambs (the inner order cut away) and a tall round-headed rear arch, followed by two broad eastern arches similar in detail to the north arcade. To the east of the original doorway is a small carved recess probably for a stoup; above and to the east are traces of blocked windows. The rear arch of the present south door is the end of the vault of the older porch, with one chamfered rib.

A renewed doorway in the west end provides access to a turret newel stair, which now ends in a shouldered doorway opening onto the nave roof. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with a chamfered hood resting on semicircular responds with moulded capitals and holdwater bases. The low-pitched nave roof has purlins resting on tie-beams with a central block carrying the ridge; the chancel has a late 19th-century crown-post roof with scissor braces.

Monuments include a broken 14th-century priest's slab in the north aisle with a high-relief figure and Lombardic marginal inscription. Wall tablets in the chancel commemorate James Muncaster (died 1797) with urn and arms, signed by Fisher of York; Robert Lisle of Acton House (died 1800) with draped urn and arms, signed by T. King of Bath; and Alexander Davison of Swarland Park (died 1829) with a carved canopied niche. A tablet in the south aisle commemorates William Adams of South Acton, dated around 1824. An octagonal font, probably of the 14th century but re-tooled, is present. Two medieval bells survive, one inscribed 'AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA', the other uninscribed and probably dating to 1674.