Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church of complex medieval development, with major phases dating from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, alongside 17th-century work and substantial restoration campaigns in 1851, 1856 and 1909. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar and some coursed rubble, with copper roofs.

The plan comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, and a crossing tower.

The west front displays stepped and gabled buttresses and a large four-light reticulated window within a continuously moulded pointed surround with diminutive annular imposts, flanked by single smaller two-light matching windows. The north aisle has an embattled parapet and stepped buttresses, with a pointed and moulded doorway set between two three-light reticulated windows. The north wall of the transept contains a similar three-light window.

The square two-stage tower is topped with an embattled parapet bearing six crocketted pinnacles. The belfry stage has pointed cusped ogee-headed louvred openings in hollow chamfered pointed surrounds with hoods. The lower stage contains a pair of 13th-century lancets in a pointed chamfered surround.

The 13th-century chancel is of coursed rubble with stepped ashlar buttresses. The north wall has three lancets with chamfered surrounds and a round-headed chamfered doorway with moulded imposts. The east wall features a fine 13th-century two-light window with geometric tracery and a quatrefoil in a moulded surround, with a blank sunk quatrefoil panel above. The south chancel wall also has three chamfered lancets.

The south transept contains a 19th-century round-headed doorway to the east, and to the south a large 17th-century mullioned and transomed four-light window with reused 14th-century moulded reveals. Above is an 18th-century sundial, and a reused 17th-century coffin slab is set in the gable. The south side of the tower displays a 13th-century two-light window matching that to the north, with a blocked 12th-century round-headed window below.

The south aisle wall contains two large three-light reticulated windows. The gabled south porch has gabled angle buttresses and a moulded outer doorway with double shafts and annular capitals. The inner doorway is also pointed, with two filleted orders of moulding to the head and angle shafts with annular capitals, with side benches.

Interior: The nave has three bays with tall arcades featuring quatrefoil piers with concave quirks, engaged annular capitals and double wave-moulded pointed arches. A 14th-century king post tie-beam roof to the nave continues uninterrupted over the aisles. At the eastern ends of the aisles are double-chamfered doorways into the transepts. Above the southern door is an incomplete 13th-century red-painted Wheel of Life.

The chancel arch is double-chamfered with filleted shafted reveals and moulded octagonal imposts. Above it is a two-light 13th-century window matching those flanking the tower. In the north-east angle of the nave, a short run of 12th-century chevron ornament marks the springing of an earlier arcade.

The north transept contains a 14th-century piscina with cusped ogee head and crocketted finial. The south transept has a plain aumbry and a trilobe-headed piscina. A blocked 12th-century round-headed window appears in the west wall of the transept. Under the tower are double-chamfered arches matching the chancel arch. The rear arch of the east chancel window is shafted and richly moulded.

Fittings: The sanctuary has Minton tiling. There is a good collection of approximately 35 14th-century poppyhead bench ends featuring blank panel tracery with trefoils, quatrefoils and foliage. Elements of a 14th-century screen are reused in the south transept, including a moulding top beam with fleurons. The remaining woodwork dates from the 19th century in a style matching the 14th-century work.

The 14th-century octagonal ashlar font has continuous panels of fleurons to the sides, ball flowers to the lower chamfer, and an engaged shafted base with annular capitals.

Monuments: The north aisle contains an early 14th-century effigy of a lady clad in a wimple with tightly buttoned sleeves, hands clasped in prayer and feet resting on a dog. The south aisle displays an ashlar plaque to John Billings (died 1773) in the form of a scrolled oval panel with cherub, and a white marble tablet to John West, gentleman (died 1853), in the form of a plain pedimented obelisk.