Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a church of 1879, designed by Douglas of Chester. It is constructed with timber framing on a brick plinth, and has a red tile roof. The church comprises a nave, a west bell turret, a south porch, a north aisle, a lower chancel, a north organ chamber, and a vestry. The timber-framed walls are mostly close studding with a middle rail. A chamfered one-light window is located to the left of the south porch. To the right of the porch, the windows have depressed cinquefoiled heads, with lights of 5, 4, and 4. The pointed porch doorway is formed by curved braces rising from posts to a cambered tie-beam. The purlins are tusk-tenoned through the bargeboards. The north aisle windows have ogee lights and are of 4, 3, 3, 3, and one lights. The west window is of 5 cinquefoiled lights with a transom, and quatrefoils below the flat head. The bell turret is close-studded, with curved tension braces on the north and south sides, topped with a pyramid roof, finial, and weather vane. Shallow louvres, with timber weatherings, are found below the eaves. The south chancel windows are of 4 and 2 lights with Perpendicular tracery and flat heads, with a doorway having a Tudor arch between them. A gabled organ chamber and a vestry projecting under a hipped roof are on the north side. The east window is of 5 cinquefoiled lights with tracery under a flat head. The interior of the nave has 5 bays, featuring chamfered aisle posts on the north side with curved braces to the arcade plate and sling braces to raised tie-beams. On the south side, interrupted tie-beams at wallplate level are tenoned into similar sling braces. The trusses have collars and vertical struts forming close studding. The supporting structure for the bell turret occupies the west bay. Three rows of purlins are windbraced. Posts directly support the tie-beam of the truss between the nave and chancel, which is closed above tie-beam level. The chancel is of 2 bays and features a truss with a tie-beam, collar, raking, and vertical struts. An opening leads to the organ chamber on the north side, and a tiled reredos is located at the east end. The communion rails, chancel rails, and pulpit are all of carved timber.