Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a church of complex medieval and later history, probably dating to around 1500 but incorporating 13th-century remains and 17th-century alterations. It is built of sandstone ashlar and rubble.

The building comprises a west tower, a nave and chancel under a continuous roof, a south aisle with pitched roof, a short north aisle at the west end, and a north chapel.

The tower is a three-stage ashlar structure of trapezoidal plan with angle buttresses, said to date to 1549, though the date 1611 carved on a merlon together with the Butler arms probably refers to a raising of the tower. The upper stage is set back and has an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The bell openings each have two chamfered cusped lights. The west window is mullioned and transomed with six lights under a Tudor-arched head with hood. The west doorway is hollow-chamfered in two orders with a Tudor-arched head and hood.

The south aisle has an embattled parapet and buttresses. Its west window is a 19th-century addition of three lights. To the left is a narrow blocked chamfered lancet, possibly from the 13th century. Two rainwater hoppers on the west wall are dated 1811. The south windows are mullioned with three lights and flat heads. To the right of the chamfered reconstructed priest's doorway are two windows, double hollow-chamfered with pointed heads to the lights, and to the left is one chamfered window with round heads to the lights. The porch has an outer hollow-chamfered doorway with round head, with a tablet above inscribed 1611. The eastern south aisle window has three pointed lights under a Tudor-arched head. The east chancel window, possibly from the late 14th century, has three cusped ogee lights with Perpendicular tracery under a pointed head, the mullions being wave-moulded. Two rainwater hoppers are dated 1811 and 1809.

The north (Butler) chapel has a pitched roof and 19th-century embattled parapet. Its two north windows have flat heads and hoods with carved stops, comprising three cusped ogee lights with Perpendicular tracery. The east window is similar, but only the middle light has an ogee head. Above are the Butler arms. At the west end of the north aisle wall is a reconstructed chamfered doorway with pointed head.

The interior has four-bay nave arcades and one arcade of two bays to the south of the chancel. They have octagonal piers with pointed arches of two chamfered orders, the arches on the north side being more steeply pointed. The west respond of the south aisle is said to be 13th century. The seven nave trusses are of light scantling and have timber pads resting on stone corbels, with arch-braced collars. On the south side of the nave are three inserted dormer windows. There is no chancel arch. The three chancel trusses have king posts rising from tie beams, each with two ogee braces to the principals and two ogee queen struts; one truss is said to be dated 1736. The south aisle has trusses with ties and arch-braced collars. The high tower arch is chamfered in two orders. In the south chancel wall is a piscina with a cusped ogee head. On the north wall are fragments of an early 14th-century wall painting of the Ascension. The north chapel windows contain re-set fragments of glass, including an early 14th-century shield.