Church Of St Michael And All Angels

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels is a Grade II* listed church located on Main Street in Illston on the Hill. It dates from the 13th to the 15th centuries but underwent significant restoration in 1867 by Goddard of Leicester. The church is constructed of coursed rubble stone with quoins and features Swithland slate roofs on the chancel and south porch, while the rest of the structure is parapetted with ashlar. It has stone coped shouldered gables with kneelers and finials.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, chancel, and south porch. The tower has three stages, a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses with set-offs, a west window, a small round south window, and a clock face on the second stage. There are four bell openings created by pairs of many-moulded lancets, a cornice with carved heads at intervals, and battlements. Inside, there is a triple chamfered nave arch, with the inner two arches continuing to the ground, and a blocked north doorway. The two north windows feature transoms and Perpendicular tracery, and there are steps in the wall leading to a former roof loft.

The south arcade consists of three bays with double chamfered arches on octagonal piers and responds. The Perpendicular clerestory has three two-light windows on each side. The 19th-century roof is a low-pitch tie-beam design with curved braces and wall pieces on carved stone corbels. The chancel arch is double chamfered, with the inner arch resting on polygonal responds. The chancel features a 19th-century three-bay roof with curved braces on stone corbels to collars, and its windows have shafts at the sides. The low two-light north window and the four-light east window contain stained glass by Clayton and Bell. The south windows include three two-light windows, two of which have stained glass by Kempe from 1901 and by Mayer and Co from Munich.

The south aisle has a southeast three-light window with Perpendicular tracery and three two-light windows with curvilinear tracery that incorporate a dagger motif. The south doorway is many-moulded, and the south porch, added in 1867, features a many-moulded archway. Inside, there is a round font from the 12th century on a triangular base, a 17th-century alabaster wall monument, and the Royal Arms painted on canvas and dated 1777.