Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church largely dating to the 15th century, with alterations from the 17th century and a substantial internal restoration around 1864 by Sugden. It is constructed of coursed sandstone, with red tile roofing to the nave and chancel, featuring verge parapets; the remaining areas have flat roofs. The church presents a unified Perpendicular style.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a chancel. The four-stage west tower has diagonal buttresses with moulded strings at the plinth, bell chamber, and parapet levels, adorned with gargoyles at the corners and crenellated parapets with crocketed pinnacles. It has a labelled three-light perpendicular-pointed window with panel tracery to the bell chamber, a flat-headed two-light window to the south, and a Tudor-arched west door.

The north and south aisles, also of the 15th century, each have three bays separated by two-stage buttresses and crenellated parapets. They feature flat-headed windows of three lights with trefoil heads in all bays except the west bays, and include a Tudor-arched door to the north and a mid-19th century gabled porch with a stone slate roof, verge parapet, and pointed entry to the south.

The two-bay chancel, dating to the 17th century, has three-light round-arched windows with flat heads. An east window in the Perpendicular style by Sugden was added in the 19th century, featuring four lights with panel tracery.

Inside, the nave has three bays supported by octagonal columns with moulded capitals. The south arcade is an imitation of the 15th-century north arcade. A pointed chancel arch, also in the 19th-century style, is present, along with a trussed nave roof featuring a brattished wall plate, cambered ties, diagonal queen posts, collar beams, and moulded double purlins. The chancel roof has single hammer beam trusses. The aisles have pent roofs with moulded ties. A 19th-century octagonal stone pulpit and a similarly styled octagonal stone font, of drum shape with a coved rim, are also present. A timber screen from 1610, with a flat balustraded design in the style of a contemporary staircase, separates the tower.

Several monuments are located within the church, primarily in the chancel. These include a 1885 brass to Arthur Chorley, a 1589 brass to Johis Wedgewood in a moulded stone surround, a 1729 monument to Captain Johannis Wedgewood featuring an aedicular plaque with a marble segmental pediment, armorial cartouche on Ionic pilasters, and carved corbels; a 1757 monument to John Wedgewood, an obelisk with flanking urns and a semi-circular apron; and a 1827 monument to John Fowler by W. Spence, a tripartite marble monument with smaller flanking panels with low-relief motifs, an open bible over a swathed urn on a sarcophagus, and a frieze bearing arms.