Hertage Centre

The Heritage Centre, formerly the Parish Church of St Michael, dates from the 15th century, with significant additions and alterations in 1496, 1678, and 1849-50. It was stripped of its furnishings between 1972 and 1975 and is by James Harrison. The building is constructed of yellow sandstone with a grey slate roof.

The church features a three-stage west tower, a three-bay nave, a two-bay chancel, and a former vestry. The south end of Bridge Street and the Row passes through the open first stage of the tower, functioning as a west porch with stone steps leading to the Row to the north and the pavement to the south. The tower buttresses are octagonal to the first stage, diagonal to the second, and clasping to the third, with a string course at each stage. The second stage has a two-light window with simple tracery to each face; above the north window is a small rectangular opening, and there are clock faces to the west and a blank panel to the south. The third stage has a paired bell-opening under an ogee hood to each face, a course of carved panels, a string course with gargoyles, and a crenellated parapet with eight crocketed pinnacles and a wind vane. The west window of the north aisle is a two-light window with simple tracery. The pair of diagonally-boarded oak west doors have ornate wrought-iron hinges. The south side of the nave has one two-light and two three-light traceried windows; the chancel has two two-light traceried windows. The east end features a diagonally-boarded oak door with iron hinges, a four-light reticulated east window with stained glass, and a three-light stained glass window by Clayton and Bell to the north aisle. The north face is featureless. The walls are crenellated, the chancel gable has a finial cross, and carved heads are used as mould-stops. The stonework and details have been damaged by sandblasting, likely around 1975.

The interior, currently under repair, includes a 15th-century north arcade with octagonal piers, a chancel roof from 1496, which is narrower than the 1678 widening of the building, and a monument to Roger Comberbach from 1771 by Benjamin Bromfield.