Church Of St Michael And All Angels

The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a parish church dating to 1849-50, designed by J. P. Harrison. It incorporates fabric from a former 12th-century church. The building is constructed of uncoursed red sandstone rubble with grey sandstone ashlar dressings, and has a 19th-century machine tile roof with ridge cresting. The church consists of a nave and chancel under a single roof (the chancel roof being slightly lower), with a south porch. The exterior features C19 buttresses with chamfered offsets, a parapeted gable end to the east with stone coping and a cross at the apex, and a timber-framed square bellcote to the west with copper-sheathed lower parts, cusped lattice openings, and a tented pyramidal copper cap with weathervane.

The south side has a central nave window of two trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil tracery and a small chancel window to the right of two trefoiled round-arched lights. A chamfered-arched south doorway has a boarded door with decorative strap hinges, and leads to a gabled porch with a chamfered archway, moulded plinth, benches, and a cobbled floor. A priest's doorway to the right has chamfered reveals, likely a lumpy tympanum from the C12, and a boarded door with strap hinges. Two fragments of C12 carved masonry are set into the south wall of the chancel. The north side has a pair of nave windows, each with two trefoil-headed lights, and a re-set C12 round-arched chancel window. A north doorway has chamfered reveals and likely a C12 lumpy tympanum, and there are two fragments of C12 carved masonry in the north wall of the chancel. The east end features buttresses flanking a large window with three cinquefoil-headed lights, foiled tracery, double-chamfered reveals, and a returned hoodmould. The west end has a window of two cinquefoil-headed lights with foilad tracery and a returned hoodmould.

Inside, the roof incorporates old timbers, by William Hill, a local joiner and carpenter. It has hammerbeams on stone corbels with arch-braced collars and pairs of purlins (single over the two-bay chancel) with cusped wind braces. A chamfered cambered C19 rood beam supports a lattice screen of diagonal struts. The interior features chamfered rear arches. Fittings include a panelled sanctuary (1952), altar rails dating to around 1850 by William Hill with saltire crosses, a possibly late C19 octagonal wooden pulpit with raised and fielded panels and a stone base, around 1850 pews incorporating reused C17 panelling, reused C18 raised and fielded wainscot panelling in the nave, possibly a C12 oval stone font with a plain wooden top, two painted benefactors’ boards, and a cast iron safe dated "T. GLOVER/&/W. ROGERS/WARDENS/1813."

Most of the church was rebuilt in 1849-50, with the exception of part of the west wall, the side walls of the porch, and a small part of the south wall. The church occupies a prominent position in the largely deserted settlement of Smethcott, near the remains of a motte and bailey.