Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A Grade I listed church of 12th-century origin, substantially modified in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with 19th-century restorations. The building is constructed of coursed and squared coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and parapets. The chancel and aisle roofs are slate, while the nave roof is lead.

The church comprises a chancel, nave with north aisle, and north-west tower. The 12th-century chancel was enlarged in the 13th century and partly rebuilt in the 14th century. It is 2 bays long with quoins and an east wall coped parapet bearing a cross at its apex. The east wall contains a 14th-century window of 3 ogee-headed cusped lights with reticulated tracery. The north and south walls each have a similar 14th-century window of 2 lights. Hood moulds with labels frame both windows. A 13th-century priest's doorway with edge-roll surround and hood mould with worn labels sits between the south windows. To the west of the south wall is a small 13th-century lancet with chamfered surround and hood mould with labels. A plank door occupies the priest's doorway.

The 12th-century nave has a 13th-century north aisle and 14th-century south chapel and porch. A 15th-century clerestory was added. The nave is 3 bays long with a chamfered plinth to the chapel, quoins, a moulded eaves cornice (the south side features a carved-head corbel table), and a coped parapet to the west, south and east. The north aisle has a coped gable to its east with moulded kneelers. Its east wall contains a 13th-century window of 3 trefoiled and staggered lights within an unpierced segmental-pointed arch, with chamfered surround and damaged hood mould and label. Three further 13th-century windows light the north aisle. The easternmost is similar to the east window, with a taller middle light flanked on either side by small quatrefoil piercings with carving in the small spandrels below. The central and westernmost windows are of 2 trefoiled lights with quatrefoil piercing within a pointed head. A 13th-century north doorway between the windows is now blocked with brick; it has a chamfered surround with broach stops above imposts moulded with nail-head ornament, together with hood moulds and labels.

The south chapel contains a 14th-century east window of 3 lights with intersecting tracery within a double-chamfered surround, hood mould and labels. The south wall, towards the east, has 2 further 14th-century windows in similar style but of 2 lights; the left window has been restored. To the left of these windows stands a 14th-century doorway with hood mould and labels, fitted with a plank door. A 14th-century porch forms the west end of the chapel, with a pointed doorway of double-chamfered head springing from moulded capitals. The splayed jambs have moulded bases, and a hood mould with carved-head labels. This 14th-century doorway is contained within a 12th-century round-headed doorway with plain tympanum and moulded edges. The round head is decorated with chevron, billet and checker ornament and is supported on round shafts with carved capitals and moulded abaci. A plank door hangs in this opening. The west wall of the porch contains a blocked pointed light. To the west of the porch is a square-headed window, possibly 13th-century with a 15th-century head, comprising 2 cusped lights and semi-quatrefoil tracery with hood mould and carved-head labels.

The west window of the nave is 14th-century, of 3 cusped lights with reticulated tracery and hood mould with labels. The 15th-century clerestory contains five square-headed windows, each of 3 lights with hood moulds and labels. At the centre of the clerestory sits a sundial with moulded hood.

The 14th-century north-west tower comprises 3 stages with offset diagonal buttresses, splayed string courses and an embattled parapet. The west doorway is 18th-century and bears a date scratched 1771; it is fitted with a plank door. Above it is a 14th-century window of 2 lights and quatrefoil within a pointed head, with hood mould. The second stage has chamfered loops to its south and west faces. The bell-chamber stage has windows of 2 lights with quatrefoil to each face, with hood moulds and labels.

Interior

The chancel windows have chamfered rere-arches. In the south wall is a 13th-century trefoiled piscina with moulded surround and hood mould. The chancel arch comprises 2 chamfered orders, the inner order supported on round engaged shafts with capitals and moulded bases.

A 13th-century north arcade of 3 bays divides the nave from the north aisle. The arcade employs round and octagonal piers and responds, all with moulded bases. The east respond has foliage carving on its moulded capital; the octagonal pier has primitive fleur-de-lys carving on its moulded capital. The remaining round pier and respond bear moulded capitals. Double-chamfered pointed arches with continuous hood mould span the bays.

A 14th-century archway to the south chapel comprises 2 chamfered orders supported on polygonal responds with moulded bases and capitals, with hood mould and labels. In the south chapel wall is a piscina with moulded surround. A blocked double-chamfered north-west tower arch is also present.

The 19th-century roofs are visible internally.

A 14th-century octagonal font stands in the nave.

Several tombs and monuments are preserved. In the north wall of the chancel is a Tudor-arched, richly moulded tomb recess with hood moulds and shield labels. It contains a limestone tomb with quatrefoil-moulded sides and an alabaster top incised with the effigy of John Merton, rector, who died in 1537 (the date is not inscribed). In the south wall is a limestone chest tomb with gothic-style ogee-headed carved panel but classical pilasters and frieze; it has a black top with a brass to Nicholas Asheton, rector, who died in 1582. Above it is a limestone tablet to Nicholas Asheton with Latin inscription, richly carved with heraldic shield and medallion. A tomb recess in the south chapel wall has a many-moulded arch and a coffin lid with a cross carved in low relief; above the recess, set in the wall, is a blank shield. A late 13th-century tomb recess in the north wall of the aisle has a many-moulded surround and carved head at its apex; no tomb survives.

The east window of the chancel contains 14th-century stained glass depicting the Crucifixion at the top with flanking ministering angels, with 19th-century glass below. The north and south windows contain heraldic glass of the Mohun family in quatrefoils, those to the north dating to the 14th century. Three reset roundels in the easternmost north aisle window probably date to the 14th century, with one roundel restored. A fragment of early glass remains in the central aisle window.

The 15th-century stained glass in the tracery of the east window of the chapel depicts the head of Christ, the Virgin, the dove of the Holy Spirit and 2 tonsured saints' heads. The cusped head of the central light contains a fragment of a canopy with a ruby border.

The chancel also contains 5 wall tablets: to Elizabeth Watkins (died 1709), Sarah Smyth (died 1758), R. Watkins (18th century), Grace Watkins (died 1718), Fleetwood Watkins (1741), and Henrietta Ingram (died 1762). A 15th-century brass in the nave bears a Latin inscription. Various 18th-century and later slabs are set in the chancel and nave floors.