Church Of St Michael And All Angels

The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a Grade II* listed church located in Longdendale, dating back to the 15th century, with the tower constructed around 1486. The interior, vestry, and clerestory were added by Shellard in 1854. The building is made of hammer-dressed stone with an ashlar clerestory and features a graduated stone slate roof. It includes a nave with aisles, aisle chapels, a south porch, and a west tower, all designed in the Perpendicular style.

The church has a six-bay aisle and chapel, with the porch situated in the second bay. It features a weathered plinth and a castellated parapet. Each bay is supported by a weathered buttress and has a stepped three-light window with a cusped head and dripmould, which is finished with carved heads. The porch has a four-centred arch opening, angled buttresses, and castellation. The clerestory also has six bays with windows of a similar design.

The four-stage tower includes angled weathered buttresses, stone bands, a castellated parapet, and crocketed corner finials. It has a three-light west window with Perpendicular tracery, a clock face above, and two-light belfry openings, along with a stair turret in one corner. The chancel is two bays long and features a five-light transomed Perpendicular-style east window, with a vestry to the north.

Inside, the nave arcade is supported by octagonal columns with moulded heads. The nave roof has a braced tie-beam design, while the chancel has arch-braced trusses supported by enriched corbels. Notable interior features include a high Victorian alabaster pulpit by H. Hems from 1885, a former painted reredos above the chancel arch, a chandelier from 1755, stained glass windows, and a barrel-shaped stone font.

There are also two early 15th-century recumbent stone effigies in the Staveleigh chapel (south), a semi-reclining figure of Reginald Bretland (1703) on a supporting plinth with Latin text, and an inscribed slab to John Pycton, rector (1517), which is now defaced and no longer visible. The church is well-positioned and retains much of its medieval character externally, dominating the skyline for miles around.