Church Of St. Michael

The Church of St. Michael is a parish church dating to the 12th century, with significant alterations and rebuilding in the 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. It is constructed of squared greenstone rubble, with brick patching and ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs with stone coped gables. The church comprises a nave and chancel. The west gable was rebuilt and raised in the 19th century, concealing an earlier brick gable, likely of the 18th century. A 3-light window from the 15th century is set into the lower part of the west wall, featuring cusped heads to the lights and a concave moulded, triangular-headed surround. Above this is a bell opening with a segmental brick head. The north nave wall has extensive brick patching, possibly due to the removal of an aisle. It contains a 2-light window from the 17th century, now featuring 19th-century Y tracery within a ribbed rectangular surround, a hood mould, and plain label stops. Further east is a 19th-century pointed light with a chamfered surround. The 2-light chancel east window is from the 13th century, but with a 19th-century top. The chancel south wall includes a 19th-century ogee-headed light and a 13th-century single chamfered pointed window. There is some indication that the chancel may have been extended. The nave south wall has two pairs of 19th-century lancets with single chamfered surrounds. The south doorway dates to the late 12th century and has nook shafts of two orders of moulding around the head, with extensive 19th-century restoration. The capitals of the shafts bear small human masks; the inner order consists of lozenges with palmettes, and the outer order has chevron moulding. The hood mould is plain. Internally, the chancel arch, possibly narrowed, has late 12th-century shafted jambs with cushion and debased Ionic capitals, surmounted by a 13th-century arch with a chamfered inner order, a keeled roll, and a step to the stop chamfered hood mould. The moulded imposts of the arch run back to either side as string courses. A transitional arched recess for a tomb is set into the north wall of the nave, and the chancel contains a trefoil-headed 13th-century piscina and a late 12th-century waterleaf statue bracket beside the altar. All other fittings are 19th century, in a 13th-century style, including the pulpit and font. A marble wall plaque to John Oldham, who died in 1818, is located in the chancel, topped by an urn and inscribed with a poignant message.