Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels, Claverdon

A church comprising a chancel and chancel arch dating mainly to around 1350 with 16th-century windows, a tower of around 1450, and a nave with aisles that were rebuilt in 1876 by the architect Ewan Christian in 14th-century style, with 20th-century restorations.

The building is constructed of lias limestone with a timber porch and Welsh slate roofs. The plan consists of a two-stage west tower, a two-bay nave with clerestory, aisles and south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a single-bay organ chamber to the north and a single-bay vestry to the south.

The tower features a chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses with offsets rising to three-quarters height, together with a south-east stair turret to the first stage. The west entrance has double plank doors within a four-centred arched surround with double-chamfered hollow moulding to the head. Above this is a three-light Perpendicular window with chamfered mullions and surrounds and a hoodmould. A moulded band marks the first stage. The second stage contains a slit window to the south with continuous hoodmould and two-light belfry windows with reticulated tracery and hollow-moulded hoodmoulds. The tower is topped by a crenellated parapet above a string course.

The nave has buttresses between bays and to the ends, with a chamfered plinth. The south porch features a cambered-arched opening with reticulated-type tracery windows to the front and sides, a brattished frieze, and decorative bargeboards to the gable end. The entrance within has double plank doors in a double-chamfered pointed-arched surround with two orders of roll-moulding and hollow-moulding between, and a roll-moulded hood with curl stops.

The south aisle contains a three-light straight-headed window, with two-light pointed-arched windows at the east and west ends. The north aisle has two two-light straight-headed windows. The clerestory, on both north and south sides, comprises four two-light windows. All windows have reticulated-type tracery to the heads and quoined surrounds.

The chancel's westernmost bays are occupied by the organ chamber and vestry. On both the north and south sides, the entrance has double plank doors in a Caernarven-arched, chamfered surround, with a pair of cusped lights in a straight-headed surround. The east ends each have a two-light pointed window with reticulated-type tracery to the head. The chancel's second bay has a three-light mullion and transom window to each side. The east end has a three-light window with reticulated-type tracery to the head, with raised gables with copings.

Internally, the nave roof is supported on corbels, and the chancel has a barrel-vaulted roof. A tall, narrow, double-chamfered four-centred tower arch rises within the nave. To the south of this is a small plank door in a pointed, chamfered surround leading to the stair turret.

The nave arcade features two double-chamfered, four-centred arches with continuous roll-moulded hoodmould, supported on a central octagonal column and end column-corbels. A continuous moulded sill band runs along the clerestory. The windows to the nave and clerestory have deep chamfered jambs and quoins. A pointed, double-chamfered chancel arch rises on a pair of slender 19th-century shafts. Double-chamfered, four-centred arches mark the east end of the aisles and the first bay of the chancel, with the inner orders carried on corbels.

The chancel windows contain stained glass by Kempe in the east window. Among the fittings is a pulpit in 14th-century French style inscribed 'CLOVELLY / AUG 12TH 1879'.

A significant monument survives: an alabaster and stone monument to Thomas Spencer, died 1630 (son of Sir John Spencer of Althorp, died 1586), which is probably Elizabethan in date. It features two black columns and a shallow coffered arch, with surfaces covered with rustically treated foliage trails.

The church forms a group with all listed items in the churchyard and with the adjacent buildings Porlock View and Church View.