Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Munslow

A stone rubble church with ashlar dressings, comprising a 12th-century tower, 12th and 13th-century chancel, 13th and 15th-century nave, and 15th-century north aisle. The building was extensively restored in 1868–70.

The plan consists of a chancel with south vestry, nave with south porch, and west tower.

The chancel's east window has simple tracery with a hoodmould. The north wall displays a 13th-century pointed window with twin lancets and a dagger to the right, and a 13th-century lancet to the left. The south wall is largely concealed by a projecting gabled vestry with twin cusped lancets in the gable; to the left is a restored arched opening with a boarded door.

The nave's north aisle contains a restored pointed window with Decorated style tracery to the left; at the centre is a pointed window with twin cusped lancets and a sexfoil; to the right are twin round-headed lancets beneath a stepped hoodmould. The end walls of the aisle each have opposing pointed windows with Decorated tracery. The south wall has a cusped lancet to the far right adjacent to a shallow flat buttress. Three late 13th or early 14th-century windows occupy the south wall: to the right is a restored 2-light plate-tracery window with a quatrefoil in a chamfered surround; at the centre is a 2-light window with a trefoil vesica; to the left is a single-light cusped window with a stepped and hollow chamfered surround. The south doorway has a chamfered arched opening with a plain hoodmould and medieval door straps on a later boarded door.

The south porch is timber-framed with two trusses and a single-purlin roof. The wall frames feature a central post with a middle rail displaying two sets of 4-light cusped intersecting arched tracery above. Base cruck trusses have collars with grooved chamfers. Wall frames include projecting brackets and hollow-chamfered and billet-moulded wall plates. A carved inset on the inner truss post depicts a hound.

The four-stage tower has a roll moulding over a battered plinth. The lower stage contains a pointed arch with twin cusped lancets and a quatrefoil. The first stage has round-headed lancets on three faces; the second stage has slit windows on the north and south faces. The upper stage features arched louvred bell-chamber openings with cusps on all faces except for a round-headed opening on the west face. A plain 18th-century parapet crowns the tower.

Internally, the walls are unplastered. The chancel has a twin-purlin roof with two trusses of arch-braced collars, double roll-moulded purlins, and arched braces. A 13th-century lancet on the south side opens into the vestry. The chancel arch has been restored.

The nave roof is a restored 5-bay structure of arch-braced collar trusses with twin cusped raking struts above, tie beams with low cusped raking struts, and three purlins. Principal members are all double roll-moulded. The double-chamfered aisle arcade contains three bays with octagonal piers. The north aisle has an arch-braced collar and rafter roof. A round tower arch features simple chamfered abaci and an enriched hoodmould with figurative label stops.

The church retains nine medieval bench-ends and seats on the south side of the nave. A 15th-century octagonal font has quatrefoil carved panels and recessed cusped lancets on the stem. Medieval glass fragments are reset in the south nave windows. A 16th-century window in the north aisle commemorates Sir John Lloyd (died 1528), and another in the east aisle window commemorates Richard Schepard. A slate wall monument to William Churchman (died 1602) depicts a shrouded figure flanked by a skull and hourglass. Brass plaques commemorate Richard Baldwin (died 1689) and his daughter Joyce (died 1674). Two wall monuments by Carline of Shrewsbury include a Greek temple-style monument to Reverend Richard Powell (died 1842) and a Gothic-style monument to Thomas Pemberton (died 1832).