Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church largely dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries. It is constructed of sandstone and granite rubble with ashlar dressings, and has low-pitched leaded roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a nave with a clerestory and two aisles, and a chancel.

The west tower is of Perpendicular style, constructed of white ashlar in banded courses. It is buttressed with an embattled parapet, featuring gargoyles and corner finials. A paired, foiled west window and a light are present in the bell chamber. The south aisle is a 19th-century restoration in granite with ashlar dressings, including an eaves cornice. It contains paired, cusped lights in the Decorated style, with hood moulds and corbel heads. A shallow gabled Victorian porch has a wide archway ornamented with a vine scroll and cusps on shafts with foliate corbels, and features a carved cross motif recessed on each side. A Victorian south doorway is a Decorated arch with shafts and leafy capitals. The east wall of the aisle appears to be original sandstone rather than granite rubble. The clerestory is of granite rubble with paired, foiled lights. The chancel is constructed of sandstone rubble with some granite, and includes a small, ogee arched priests’ door to the west, and good Perpendicular tracery to a 3-light north window, a 3-light south window, and a 5-light east window. Above the east window are two blocked, 2-centred arched lights. An east wall memorial, with an inscription on slate beneath a sandstone broken pediment and shield of arms, commemorates Richard Benskin, who died in 1756, and Sarah, who died in 1741. The east wall and the west bay of the north aisle are of granite rubble, with the remainder being sandstone, likely all 19th-century work, although the north doorway, with shafts, roll moulding and a hoodmould, is late 13th century. The aisle windows have 3-cusped ogee lights in square headed arches.

Inside, the tower has a thin, painted double chamfered arch on shafts. The nave, with four bays, has a south arcade of the earlier, late 13th century, with round piers and octagonal capitals. The east and west responds are slim columns, with the eastern one having a worn stiff-leaf capital. Single chamfered arches have an outer chamfer or hoodmould also springing from the capitals. The north arcade is slightly later, with narrower octagonal piers, but has similar detailing. The nave roof is 19th century, featuring moulded cambered trusses. There is a piscina in the south aisle. The chancel arch is double chamfered and springs from corbels. A mid-Victorian, openwork wood traceried screen, set on a stone base, incorporates an ornate stone pulpit to the north. A piscina and reredos are in the south wall of the chancel, dating to the late 13th century, with other features being Perpendicular. Its Victorian roof has moulded trusses with painted bosses.

The font dates to the 13th century; it is a rounded basin with four clusters of shafts supporting a carved but mutilated rim, with carved capitals and bases standing free of the central, round base.