Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A parish church in ashlar sandstone with stone dressings, dating from the 14th century but substantially rebuilt in 1841 and again in 1863. The building comprises a western steeple, nave with north aisle, lower chancel, north vestry, and south porch.

The three-stage western tower features stepped full-height set-back buttresses and a deep chamfered plinth. The south elevation displays a pointed chamfered doorcase, while the west face has a central two-light pointed window with cusped tracery; both openings sit beneath dark red stone relieving arches. Above each opening is a single central trefoil window with hood under a similar relieving arch, the southern one having a clockface above. The third stage, slightly recessed, is marked by a chamfered string at its base and pairs of chamfered louvred lancets with tracery trefoils at their tops, all under hoods and relieving arches facing all sides. A moulded corbel table crowns this stage, above which rises a large broached spire with gableted lucarnes to all four sides and a ball finial at its apex. A projecting staircase turret projects from the north elevation of the tower.

The roof is graduated slate with crested ridge tiles, ridge crosses, and moulded stone coped gables on gableted kneelers, with a continuous sill stringcourse running along the nave.

The north aisle contains four 19th-century two-light windows with quatrefoils over trefoil-headed lights and hoodmoulds, flanked by buttresses at either end and between the windows. To the east, the north vestry has two pairs of adjoining trefoil-headed lancets with a buttress between them. The east elevation shows diagonal buttresses either side of the chancel and a central three-light window. The south chancel elevation features a central pointed chamfered 19th-century doorcase with an adjoining buttress to the east, and beyond it a 19th-century two-light pointed traceried window with hood; a similar window stands to the west of the door. The south wall of the nave displays two large pointed 19th-century three-light windows with large quatrefoils over trefoil-headed lights, and a single lancet with quatrefoil over trefoil-headed light beyond the south porch to the west. The south porch has a deep moulded pointed arch on nook shafts with waterleaf capitals and a simple double-chamfered pointed inner door.

The interior preserves much restored 14th-century work, including a four-bay north arcade with double-chamfered pointed arches on octagonal columns and moulded capitals, with chamfered hoods and carved labelstops over. A 19th-century pointed chancel arch with moulded soffit is supported by columnar corbels with waterleaf capitals. A tall, narrow double-chamfered tower arch, probably original but much restored, connects the nave to the tower. A double-chamfered arch links the chancel to the north organ bay.

All roofs are 19th-century work, as are the choir stalls with fleur-de-lys poppyheads, the octagonal stone font with decorated tracery to the sides of its bowl, the wooden screen across the tower arch, and the nave pews. The marble pulpit with cusped panelling and the reredos of similar design are probably 20th-century additions. On the north side of the chancel arch stands a large stone statue of Joan of Arc, also 20th-century.

To the north side of the chancel is a magnificent re-set 17th-century wall tomb with a segmental-headed niche topped by achievements. It contains various plaques and inscribed cartouches to the Sleigh family, with a painted coffin at its base. The base features semi-circular niches with painted coats of arms and two inscribed panels dated 1634 and 1679.

The nave contains one marble and slate memorial to William Eaton of 1858 and various 20th-century memorials. The east window and two south nave windows contain stained glass dating to around 1863.