Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Parish church built in 1861 by architect John Johnson, designed in the style of the 14th and 15th centuries. The building is constructed of rockfaced ashlar with ashlar dressings, plain and patterned slate roofs, and features a single ashlar side wall stack. A mid-20th century west end vestry was added later. The church is buttressed throughout with coped gables with gabled kneelers and some coved eaves with ball flower ornament.

The building comprises a south-west tower, south porch, nave, chancel, north vestry, south aisle, and west vestry. The tower rises in three stages with a deep battered plinth and a canted stair turret to the north-west with door. Two string courses run across the tower, linked with hood mould and finials, and an eaves band features four gargoyles. The second stage carries a lancet with hood mould and mask stops to the south, and two quatrefoil lights to the west. The third stage has four Decorated double lancets, each with a gabled slit light below featuring crocketed gable and gargoyles. An octagonal broach spire rises above, set with four canopied lancets flanking shafts, staggered quatrefoil lights, and a weathercock.

The timber-framed south porch has a chamfered ashlar plinth and two traceried glazed panels on each side. The gabled, bargehoarded entrance has arch braces and a pair of wooden gates, with a scissor-braced common rafter roof.

The nave contains four bays with four double lancets to the north featuring panel tracery, and a Decorated triple lancet with hood mould at the west end. The chancel comprises three bays with a stepped string course, a Decorated triple lancet with hood mould and mask stops at the east end, and three single lancets with linked hood mould and mask stops to the south. The north vestry has three bays with an off-centre moulded 15th century style door to the north and a shouldered double lancet to the right and east. The south aisle contains two bays with a five-light early 14th century style lancet with Decorated tracery at the east end and two Decorated double lancets to the south. The west vestry comprises three bays with a chamfered plinth and coped parapet. Its west end has a projecting centre with an ashlar staircase leading to a central door flanked by single mullioned casements. The north and south sides each have two mullioned casements. A south doorway in 13th century style carries a hood mould.

Interior features include a nave south arcade of four bays with two clustered piers with lobed bases and capitals, and at the west a single round pier with broached square base and foliate capital. The arches are chamfered and moulded with hood mould. The principal rafter roof features arch braces and wall shafts on corbels. The chancel contains an ornate 14th century style arch and responds with flanking shafts and foliate capitals on angel corbels. A stepped screen wall and sill band divide the chancel from the nave. The east end holds a large alabaster reredos in 14th century style with canopied niches and figures. The chancel roof is scissor-braced with arch braces on angel corbels. The south aisle has a lean-to roof with arch braces.

Church fittings include a 13th century round font with cusped blind arcading, a 19th century canted ashlar pulpit, and a brass lectern. Simple softwood benches, stalls, and desks, some with doors, furnish the interior.

Stained glass windows include examples signed by "T. F. Curtis, Ward & Hughes, London" dated 1914, 1918, and 1919 on the north side of the nave. A further stained glass window dates to 1938. The south aisle contains stained glass windows and brasses dated 1905 and 1914. The west end of the nave preserves a stained glass window and brass from 1866.

The church contains numerous monuments spanning several centuries: a painted slate tablet with arms and acrostic verse to Henry Harley dated 1650; a slate tablet signed "W. Haywood Sculp." from 1747; a slate tablet with arms from 1759; a Classical marble and slate tablet with obelisk, figure of Hope and sarcophagus from 1818; Classical marble and slate tablets from 1841; a pedimented tablet from 1841; a Gothic wall monument with arms from 1869; a Gregory hatchment; three brasses from the 19th and 20th centuries; and a marble and slate tablet from 1914. A bronze War Memorial plaque dated 1918 is also preserved within the church.