Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This parish church probably originates in the 12th century and was enlarged in the 14th century and late 19th century. It is constructed of coursed rubble, partly plaster-skimmed, with plain tiled roofs. The building comprises a west tower, nave and chancel.

The west tower is built of rock-faced coursed sandstone with a pyramidal roof and weathervane. It rises two storeys with a single lancet window to each of the three exposed sides of the ground storey, and one pair of lancets to each side of the first storey.

The nave probably dates to the 13th century and contains two bays. On the south elevation stands a 2-light mullioned double-chamfered window to the left of the porch, set within late 19th-century rock-faced sandstone. To the right of the porch is a 3-light 14th-century window with an ogival cinquefoil head to each light. The entrance itself is a roughly central opening beneath a rendered rubble and part timber-framed porch. This porch has deeply splayed openings on each side wall, a miniature wagon roof set on bowtell-moulded wall-plates and a depressed 4-centred outer timber head through a 2-centred arch over an 18th-century ledged door. The north elevation is rendered rubble with a heavy late 19th-century buttress with offsets to the north-west corner. One window near the east end features double-chamfered 2-light mullions of the same design as the window west of the porch.

The chancel's south elevation displays to its west side a single-light ogee window with trefoil head, heavily restored. To the east side is a 2-light trefoil-headed window with two heavily restored mouchettes above, with a blocked priests' door between the two windows. The east window has a 2-centred head containing three lights under a label with restored cinquefoils to all three lights; the outer lights have ogee heads beneath upper cinquefoils. The north side includes a one-light double-chamfered window to the east and a one-light window with segmental head to the west (dated late 12th or 16th century). A blocked door to the former rood loft stands at the west side.

The interior features a continuous wagon roof with alternate rafters enriched by mouldings from the east window to the tower, indicating a former ceiling pattern. Bowtell-moulded wall-plates are present throughout, with three matching tie-beams positioned above the altar rail, at the choir screen and between the two bays of the nave. The chancel displays deeply splayed window reveals to the north wall and a blocked door with 4-centred head and roll-moulding, probably to the rood loft. Two monuments stand on the chancel's north wall: one undated monument to Humphry Thomas (probably mid-18th century) with an enriched plaque supported on an acanthus corbel, and a monument to Jane Campion (died 1744) with a foliage and strap-decorated plaque on a corbel with patera.

The nave contains a late-medieval painting of Christ of the Trades and an octagonal font with moulded pillar supporting an octagonal basin, probably late 14th to early 15th century. A late 19th-century 2-centred pointed arch on moulded corbels spans the tower opening. Four monuments are present: one west of the choir screen on the north wall to Samuel Harris (died 1757) with an enriched plaque bearing the inscription "My Sledge and Hammer lies declin'd,/ My Bellows to have lost their Wind,/ My Fire is extint, my Forge is decay'd,/ And in the dust my Vice is laid,/ My Cole is spent, my Iiron's gone,/ My Nails are drove, my work is done." A second monument honours Henry Morgan (died 1834) by John Pritchard of Clodock with an enriched epitaph panel. On the south wall are monuments to Walter Morgan (died 1796) with a cartouche supported on corbel, and Edmund Thomas (died 1757) with a plaque on corbel featuring scrolls and achievement above the inscription. A fragment of 15th-century stained glass survives in the spandrel of the window to the east of the porch, depicting a heart pierced by spear, mallet and pincers with suns in their glory.

The church retains a large amount of skimmed plaster on the nave walls and, apart from tower and window alterations, preserves a largely unrestored appearance. This character is heightened internally by the well-preserved ensemble of work in the roofs of the nave, chancel and porch.