Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church dating from 1746, with substantial alterations and extensions in 1849 by F.J. Francis. It is constructed of tooled-and-margined ashlar with smooth ashlar dressings, and has a synthetic stone slate roof.

The church comprises a five-bay aisleless nave, a chancel, and a south vestry. The original 1746 fabric is in a Classical style, while the 1849 additions are Romanesque. The nave has a moulded plinth and sill bands, impost bands, and shafted angle pilasters. The west end features a central boarded door, with studded margins, ornate 18th-century hinges, and a round arch of four moulded orders, supported by jamb shafts with carved capitals. Above the door are two windows with double-shafted jambs, and a wheel window set under a round-arched bellcote with a finial cross. The side walls of the nave have windows similarly detailed with double-shafted jambs and moulded inner orders carried on 18th-century pilasters. An eaves cornice sits on carved corbels, unfinished on the south side. Coincident joints in the plinth and bands indicate the 1849 extension. The chancel has a chamfered plinth, moulded sill string, and shafted angles. Its east end contains three windows of equal height; above them is a trefoiled round window. The lower vestry on the south has a two-light window and a moulded door leading to the boiler room on its east side. A moulded priest’s door and a window with foliage-carved capitals to the jamb shafts are located on the north side of the chancel. Gabled roofs have moulded kneelers and finial crosses.

Internally, the church is plastered. The chancel arch is formed on detached shafts with carved bases, shaft rings, and foliage-carved capitals. All windows feature shafted inner jambs with carved capitals. A carved cornice is present in the chancel. The nave has a collar-beam roof with braces on moulded stone corbels; the chancel roof has a scissor-brace design. An ornate 19th-century Romanesque font is also located within.

A monument to Charles, second Earl Grey, who died in 1845, resides in the nave. It is a white marble table tomb with an inlaid brass foliate cross and enamelled shields, designed by John Francis and carved by J. Bedford. To the south of the sanctuary, carved Grey arms within a cusped panel form part of a former canopy to this monument. 17th-century Grey ledger stones are found in the sanctuary.