Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a building of group value, dating back to the 11th century, with significant additions and alterations from around 1200, the 15th century, and the 19th century, culminating in a restoration in 1874. Constructed primarily from rubble and ashlar limestone, it features red tile and sheet metal roofing.

The church comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave, a three-bay chancel with a north chapel and vestry, and a two-bay south chapel. The west tower, likely built around 1200, has a plinth, angle buttresses, and a C19 west window with two cusped lights. Two offset bands decorate the tower, the upper band incorporating saltire crosses. A later belfry stage has two-light openings beneath chamfered, four-centred arches. The east belfry window features carved spandrels, a round arch framing a clock, and a cavetto-moulded course with gargoyles beneath an embattled parapet.

The C19 south aisle features a gabled porch and square-headed windows with two ogee lights. A south door within the porch is adorned with colonnettes and a moulded arch. Roll-moulded parapet copings run along the south wall of the nave where the embattled wall abuts the tower, representing a remnant of the original 11th-century tower. The north wall contains a small, likely repositioned, C12 window to the right and C19 windows of three and five lights to the left. The east gable has cross copings. The chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century, with a separately roofed south chapel also added at that time, buttresses at the junction with the nave and the east angle. A hooded priest’s door and a pointed east window of three lights are located on the chancel’s north side, with a hooded, two-light window featuring geometrical tracery in the adjacent bay. To the east is a stepped lancet window and a mullioned window set within a buttress. Gable copings are present on the chapel and chancel, with the chancel bearing a cross.

Inside, a pointed, chamfered tower arch leads to the nave. A C12 north arcade pierces the north wall of the original 11th-century tower base; the west arch features ½ round imposts with broad capitals and a C19 double-chamfered arch. Other north-aisle bays have an octagonal pier with a decorated capital and pointed arches with a step and chamfered inner order. The C19 south aisle arcade exhibits quatrefoil piers, moulded capitals, and double-chamfered arches. The chancel arch has half-octagonal responds, a pointed arch with a step and chamfer, and a jamb with four voussoirs from the original 11th-century chancel arch. A C19 south chapel arcade has a quatrefoil pier and a moulded arch. The north arcade reuses old semi-octagonal responds, otherwise being renewed. A 14th-15th century font sits beneath the tower, encircled by a wooden corona. A 1696 pulpit features marquetry panels, carved garlands, and cherubs’ heads. A late 18th-century wall monument commemorates the Buck family, while the south chapel houses Thellusson monuments and brasses. A brass dating to 1773 is located to the left of the altar. Early grave slabs are found in the nave, including one commemorating Richard de Pickburn with a foliated cross dated 1421.

The exterior and interior have been heavily buttressed and shored due to subsidence.