Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church of medieval origins, with construction spanning the 13th to 16th centuries. A south aisle was added and major restoration was completed in 1878. The building is constructed from coursed rubble and coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, featuring leaded aisle roofs and concrete tiles elsewhere. The plan consists of a west tower, a three-bay nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with south organ bay, a north chapel, and a north vestry.

A moulded plinth runs throughout the building. The 15th-century west tower rises in two tall stages with a chamfered band between them and almost full-height wide stepped diagonal buttresses to the western corners. A small pointed chamfered 19th-century west door is positioned below a large 3-light pointed Perpendicular window set in a deep cavetto-moulded surround, with a small stair window to its right. Stepped eastern buttresses rise halfway up the first stage on both north and south sides. The tower features pointed 2-light louvred bell openings on all sides with returned hoodmoulds and cusped Y-tracery. A small stair window sits below the western opening, and a clockface below the southern one. An eaves stringcourse with central gargoyles is topped by embattled parapets with crocketed corner pinnacles.

The 16th-century north aisle has a four-centred arched doorcase at its west end, beneath a flat-headed 2-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The north face displays two 3-light flat-headed windows in cavetto-moulded surrounds with semi-circular-headed lights and incised spandrels. Buttresses between bays and at the corner are topped by a blocking course with moulded copings. A gabled 19th-century north chapel projects to the east, with a 3-light Perpendicular-traceried window to the north set in a hoodmould and a trefoil window above. The vestry, attached to the east side of the chancel wall, has a 2-light flat-headed window with trefoil-headed lights and hoodmould to the north, and a four-centred arched door to the east.

The chancel's east wall features a 3-light pointed 19th-century window flanked by diagonal buttresses. The south chancel elevation has a 19th-century single-light flat-headed window with returned hoodmould and cusped tracery. The south organ bay to the west contains a trefoil-headed lancet with hoodmould to its east face and a similar 3-light window to the south. The south aisle has two 3-light flat-headed windows with hoodmoulds, ogee-headed lights, and incised spandrels, flanking a central gabled porch with a moulded pointed doorcase. Stepped diagonal buttresses rise at the aisle and porch corners, topped by a blocking course with moulded copings. A large lancet opens to the west wall of the nave.

The interior contains three-bay north and south arcades. The northern arcade dates to the 14th century and features stiled pointed double-chamfered arches on tapering octagonal piers with moulded capitals; the southern arcade is a 19th-century copy. A double-chamfered pointed chancel arch with soffit on moulded corbels and hoodmould with foliage stops leads to the chancel. A tall triple-chamfered pointed tower arch, now fitted with a glazed screen, separates the nave from the tower. Pointed arches open to both north and south sides of the chancel; the northern arch dates to the 14th century. A 13th-century trefoil-headed doorcase with keel-moulded jambs, moulded imposts, and nailhead enrichment to the cusped arch is also located to the north. Between the north chapel and aisle is a pair of small pointed arches carried on a large central column with moulded capital. A small pointed doorcase connects the south aisle to the organ bay.

The chancel fittings, including a timber rood screen with cusped arcaded top and a matching pulpit, date to around 1935. A 14th-century octagonal stone font features quartrefoils to each side of the bowl and a moulded stem. A small trefoil-headed piscina is set into the chancel wall.

The church contains numerous monuments of varying periods. A fine late 17th-century monument to Francis Revel has a broken pedimented top and gadrooned base on winged skulls. A similar monument of around 1768 commemorates John Downing. Two simple plaques over angel-head corbels, dated to 1797 and 1703, both commemorate members of the Revel family. Several wall memorials in slate and white marble from the early and mid-19th century are present, along with two late 19th-century examples featuring Gothick aedicules. Stained glass includes one mid-19th-century window, with several others dating from the late 19th century or early 20th century.