Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

Parish church. Early 14th century, late 14th century, 16th century, with restoration in 1839 and 1885 by Bodley and Garner. Built of coursed squared sandstone and sandstone ashlar with sandstone dressings. Lead and plain tile roofs with stone coped gables. The plan comprises a west tower, aisled nave, south vestry and chancel.

The west tower has two stages divided by a chamfered string course. Angle buttresses are linked to the battlemented parapet by pilaster strips. The plinth is chamfered. The south side features a single lancet with triangular head, and to the west a 19th-century doorway with a two-light Decorated window above having cusped ogee lights and a hoodmould with head stops. The north side has a small lancet matching the south side and a clock face below. Two-light bell openings from the early 14th century, each with a transom, occupy all four sides.

The north aisle contains a 19th-century lancet in the west wall and diagonal buttresses. Five windows with Y-tracery line the north side; the second from the west is 19th-century, replacing a doorway still visible from within. A buttress stands after the third window. The clerestory consists of three plain two-light chamfered mullion windows under flat heads. An aedicule wall tablet with fluted half columns commemorates George Hodgkinson, died 1804. A three-light east window features bar tracery. The north side of the chancel has a 19th-century window with Y-tracery, a buttress, another window with Y-tracery, a priest's doorway with roll moulding and hoodmould, a 19th-century lancet and a blocked doorway with a slate headstone set in. The chancel's 19th-century east window has four lights with bar tracery and a blind quatrefoil above.

The chancel's south side contains three windows with Y-tracery, the outer two being larger and 19th-century. The south aisle's east window has three Tudor-arched lights with a transom and remains of a hoodmould with headstops from an earlier window. The south side has a two-light window with a reticulation unit and, beyond the vestry, two further probably 19th-century windows with Y-tracery. The west window displays two Tudor-arched lights within a square hood. The gabled vestry is in battlemented Tudor style, built in 1889 according to a faculty. It features a cusped three-light window to the south under a Tudor arch, a two-light window to the east and a doorway to the west, with an octagonal chimney stack at the south-east corner. The vestry and south aisle have diagonal buttresses, and their clerestory matches that on the north side.

Interior: The arcades have three bays with octagonal piers and abaci, and double-chamfered arches. The tower arch is double-chamfered with the inner order resting on corbels. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with semi-octagonal responds and moulded capitals. In the chancel are triple sedilia and a piscina, together with a 19th-century aumbry. A carved alabaster reredos depicts angels beneath crocketed gables. Squints open from the aisles on either side.

Monuments: Godfrey Meynell (chancel north, died 1854) has a Gothic aedicule. Plain 17th- and 18th-century inscribed tablets are built into the north wall, with one free-standing on the south side; one bears a brass plate dated 1705. The north chapel contains an incised slab to Alice Beresford, died 1511. The south aisle has a tomb chest to Henry Role and his wife, died 1559. A tablet to Charles Wilmot, died 1724, has a scrolled pediment. Various 19th-century tablets, some signed by Hall of Derby, are present.

A 19th-century parclose screen stands in the south aisle and another in the north aisle, the latter incorporating medieval work. The rood screen is by Bodley and Garner. A brass eagle dates to circa 1884. An octagonal font sits on a 19th-century base, with a 17th-century font cover. Choir stalls and organ case are probably by Bodley and Garner. An 18th-century communion rail is present. Flemish stained glass dated 1631 appears in the south aisle's east window. A possibly 14th-century tower screen with simple geometrical tracery, moved from the chancel, remains.