Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Felton

This is a parish church built in 1853-54 by Thomas Nicholson of Hereford, with a porch and tower pyramid roof added in 1891.

The building is constructed of coursed local grey sandstone with buff-coloured dressings and has a slate roof. It comprises a nave with a lower and narrower chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a north vestry.

The exterior displays Decorated style with a prominent 3-stage tower featuring diagonal west buttresses and a north-east turret. The lower stage contains a 2-light west window and ogee-headed north and south windows, with small cusped round windows above. The narrower bell stage is enriched with ballflower on the angles and cornice, and has 2-light bell openings with louvres. A pyramidal shingle roof sits behind an embattled parapet. The 3-bay nave has 2-light windows and a south doorway with continuous quadrant moulding. The porch displays a figure of St Michael in a niche over the south entrance. The chancel has a sill band to two ogee-headed south windows and a 3-light east window with geometrical tracery. The north vestry has ogee-headed windows and a pointed west door.

Internally, the simple tower arch has chamfers dying into the imposts. The chancel arch is richer, with filleted semi-circular responds and moulded capitals. Trussed rafter roofs are boarded behind throughout. The chancel roof is enriched by stars and painted blue over the sanctuary. The vestry has an unusually wide arch with chamfers dying into the imposts. On the south side of the chancel are a cinquefoil-headed piscina and a window seat; on the north side is a large aumbry. Walls are plastered. Tile floors include encaustic tiles in the chancel, and beneath pews and choir benches are raised wood floors.

The font is octagonal in Perpendicular style. The elaborate marble pulpit, dated 1882, is polygonal with symbols of the Evangelists in cusped arches. Benches have panelled ends, some clearly family pews with the names of local farms in archaic lettering. Choir benches have moulded ends with a frieze of open quatrefoils to the fronts. A small stone reredos in the sill of the east window has a statue niche flanked by quatrefoils. Most stained glass dates from the 1850s: the east window shows Christ in Glory, south windows show Christ healing and Christ blessing children, and patterned coloured glass appears in the nave south windows. The west window, made after 1882, shows Christ blessing children in a landscape setting. A neo-classical wall tablet to John Pitt (died 1810) is in the base of the tower.

The church was designed by Thomas Nicholson (1823-95), an architect of Hereford who received many commissions in the diocese. This is one of his earliest works. The porch and pyramid roof on the tower were added in 1891 by Nicholson & Son, who also enlarged the vestry. The church retains many original fittings including benches and stained glass.