Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a Grade II* listed building located in Hopton Wafers, constructed in 1827 and restored in 1892. It was built for Thomas Botfield and features sandstone ashlar with an ashlar plinth, topped with a slate roof that has projecting eaves and verge supported by ornamental eaves corbels.

The church has a plan that includes a nave with an incorporated chancel, a south porch, and a west tower. The exterior showcases an east window and four opposing side windows, all designed in a 19th-century Gothic style with arched shapes, mullions, and simple foiled tracery. The south window is sheltered by the south porch, which has an arched entrance and a semi-castellated parapet.

The tower is designed in a Romanesque style, featuring round-headed windows with simple ornamentation at both the upper and lower stages, along with string courses. A roundel is present in the middle stage on the south side, and the parapet is adorned with pointed crenellation and corner pinnacles above a weathered string course.

Inside, the church boasts a late 19th-century four-bay hammerbeam roof and a chancel screen. There is a west gallery embellished with cast iron, and a 12th-century font. Notable interior features include a wall monument to Thomas Botfield, who died in 1843, created by E.H. Baily, which depicts a large relief of reclining and kneeling figures. Other Classical wall monuments commemorate John Hale, who died in 1779; James Stanton and his wife Ann, who died in 1817, by T. Hare; and Mrs. Mary Hyde, who died in 1778. The west tower contains a fragment of 15th-century glass depicting an angel.