Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A parish church of early 14th-century date, incorporating some 13th-century fragments, with additions from the 15th and 16th centuries. The chancel was restored between 1866 and 1868 by G F Bodley; an organ chamber was added in 1882-3 and the tower was restored in 1924. The building is constructed in coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave and aisles, north porch with adjoining Volka chapel, south porch, chancel and north vestry.

The west tower is of five stages, with the top stage added in the 15th century. It has a moulded plinth and crenellated parapet with stepped angle buttresses featuring traceried panels on the outer faces. A stair turret at the north-west corner is corbelled out in the angles between wall and buttress, with a trefoil arch over carved heads. The top stage is defined by a row of corbels and contains a small single-light window with a two-centred head on the south and east walls; the parapet has carved gargoyles. The fourth (belfry) stage has a window of two trefoiled lights under a two-centred head to each wall. The third stage has circular windows with octofoil cusping. The second stage has a window of one trefoiled light in each wall except to the east, where a semi-circular headed doorway opens into the nave roof. The first stage has a window of two pointed lights. The ground stage has a window of two pointed lights under a two-centred head with sunk-chamfered reveals in each external wall. The entrance in the north wall has moulded jambs and a segmental pointed head with cinquefoil cusping.

The north aisle comprises five bays with four circular windows having sexfoil cusping to the clerestory. The north porch is positioned in the bay to the west of centre, with the small Volka chapel attached to the east. The outer arch of the porch has chamfered jambs, a segmental pointed arch and a moulded label with defaced head stops. The west wall has a window of four cinquefoiled lights in a square head. The north door has double-chamfered jambs and a three-sided head elaborately cusped. The north window of the Volka chapel is rectangular, divided by a transom, with the lower part consisting of three square lights with octofoil cusping and the upper part of six plain lights. The windows of the aisle each have two lights which are plain, trefoiled and cinquefoiled from west to east. The eastern bay contains a window of three cinquefoiled lights under a two-centred head with tracery. High in the west wall (above the 19th-century organ chamber) is a circular window with cinquefoil cusping.

The south aisle is of similar design regarding its windows. The south porch is of 15th-century date and is timber-framed with a cambered tie-beam bearing a central grotesque, a king-post roof and decorative bargeboards.

The nave is surmounted at its east gable by a sanctuary bellcote. The chancel has angle buttresses to its east end. The south wall comprises three bays: from west to east are windows of two cinquefoiled lights under a two-centred head, a trefoiled lancet, and two trefoiled lights with trefoil above under a two-centred arch. The east window contains three cinquefoiled lights with tracery under a two-centred arch.

The north vestry dates to the 14th century, with the upper storey added in the 16th century. It has a gable to the north with a segmental-headed tomb recess at ground level.

Interior

The entrance to the Volka chapel from the porch has chamfered jambs and a round-shouldered head. In the south wall is a tomb recess containing an empty stone coffin; the back of the recess has a window of four pointed lights opening into the aisle.

The nave has a five-bay arcade to each aisle with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders. The octagonal piers have hollows sunk on the diagonal sides, moulded capitals and chamfered bases. The tower arch is a segmental pointed arch of two chamfered orders, with the outer dying into the responds and the inner springing from head corbels.

The south aisle has a piscina with a trefoil head and an adjoining locker. The chancel arch is a segmental pointed arch of two chamfered orders, with the inner order springing from corbelling at a lower level, probably supporting a rood loft. The entrance to the north vestry has a three-sided head with cusping.

The south wall of the chancel has a three-seat sedilia, with the two eastern seats under a wide semi-elliptical arch and the western seat under a cinquefoiled two-centred arch. A piscina to the east of the sedilia has a trefoil head.

The roofs of the aisles are 19th-century boarded lean-tos. The nave roof comprises six bays with crown posts on arch-braced tie-beams with crown-plates; each common rafter couple has a collar with straight arch braces. The chancel roof is a boarded barrel vault painted with an "IHC" motif, executed by Bodley.

The font is of 14th-century date, with an octagonal bowl having a moulded soffit, a plain stem and a hollow-chamfered base. Pews are all 19th-century. The east window contains 14th-century stained glass with numerous figures including Christ in Glory, the Coronation of the Virgin in two lights, various coats of arms, and Tobias and the Angel Raphael. A framed cartoon by Sir Frank Brangwyn for a stained glass window of the Crucifixion is displayed over the altar in the south aisle.