Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church with origins in the 13th century or earlier. The building was part rebuilt and extended around 1300, with further alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries, and underwent restoration in 1895. It is constructed of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features a timber-framed bell chamber with boarded infill. The roofs are plain tiled with decorative ridge tiles, and parapets with cross finials mark the east end and the end of the north transept.

The church comprises a west tower, four-bay nave with north transept and south porch, and two-bay chancel.

The west tower is in two stages with three storeys internally. The lower rubble stage is medieval and has a battered plinth, a 19th-century pointed chamfered south doorway, and two rectangular lights (one per storey) in the north and west sides. The timber-framed bell chamber was added in the 16th century and features three rows of close-set studding with louvred openings in the central panels of the upper and lower rows. It is topped with a pyramidal roof and tall weathervane.

The nave was heightened in the 14th century. Its south wall was rebuilt in 1895. The side elevations have angled buttresses with offsets at the west end and buttresses with offsets at the east end, all of 19th-century date. The north elevation displays a pair of 19th-century lancets and a small 19th-century lancet, while the south elevation has three pairs of lancets of similar date.

The north transept was added around 1300 and is gabled with an original three-light window at its gable end and a 19th-century pointed chamfered doorway in its east side. A 19th-century external rubble chimney stands in the east angle.

The south porch is of 19th-century date. It is gabled and timber-framed on a tall dressed rubble base with ashlar coping. The roof has overhanging eaves and moulded bargeboards with traceried relief decoration, arch-braced inner and outer king-post trusses, and brattished wall-plates. Six-light chamfered mullioned openings appear at each side. The floor paving incorporates some ledger slabs dating to around 1700 belonging to members of the Guest family, as well as a slab with an incised cross said to be the former altar slab. The south doorway, also of 19th-century date, is pointed with continuous roll moulding.

The chancel was rebuilt around 1300. Its east wall was rebuilt in 1698, and part of the south wall was rebuilt again in 1895. A reset and restored original east window of three lights remains, alongside a stone inscribed "John Houlds, 1698" recording the rebuilding of the wall. The side elevations both have two pairs of cusped lancets, all of 19th-century date except for the south-east window, which is of circa 1300 but much restored.

Interior

The chancel arch is formed by a moulded arch-braced brattished tie beam with pierced quatrefoil decoration in the spandrels. The nave contains a 14th-century pointed archway opening into the transept (now used as a vestry), comprising two chamfered orders with the outer continuous and the inner springing from semi-octagonal shafts with moulded capitals. A blocked doorway of similar date stands to the west of this arch, and another blocked doorway exists between the two south windows of the chancel. A medieval doorway in the west wall of the nave leads into an alcove at the base of the tower.

The nave and chancel both have 14th-century wagon roofs with scissor-braces. The chancel features a 19th-century painted gilded reredos, a circa 1300 piscina with pointed head, and altar rails with turned balusters, moulded handrails, and shaped finials given to the church in 1701. Various masons' marks are scratched onto the east and south-east windows.

The stone font is probably of 13th-century date and has an octagonal bowl and circular stem on a two-stepped base. The five-sided timber pulpit includes two enriched arcaded panels with inscriptions—one from the Bible and the other stating "This pulpit was given by Thomas Higgins gent Anno Domini 1613"—with the remaining panels of late 17th-century date. An early 18th-century parish chest dated 1722 was given by another Thomas Higgins.

In the north transept is a recess with a cusped head and scalloped fan-shaped drain of circa 1300. The church retains a fine late 18th-century organ case by Tommy Blyth of Middlesex, which was reconstructed and enlarged by Reginald Welch of Oxford in 1867.

Memorials include an early 19th-century memorial in the chancel to Abigail Domuile (died 1822) with urn relief. The nave contains memorials to William Domuile (died 1859), Edward Price (died 1773), and Samuel Ferrar, all with urn decoration.