Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church dating from the 12th century, with alterations made in the late 13th and 15th centuries. It was restored in the mid-19th century, with further alterations carried out in 1959 by the architects Godwin and Greenway. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble and tufa with sandstone ashlar dressings. It has plain tiled roofs and a timber bell tower topped with a shingled turret. The church displays Norman, Decorated and Perpendicular architectural styles.

The nave dates from the early 12th century and was extended to the west in the late 12th century and again in the 15th century to enclose the bell tower. It features opposing doorways. The chancel is two bays in length and dates from the late 12th century.

The nave has a chamfered plinth with a string course on its late 12th-century section, and pilaster buttresses mark the junction between the early and late 12th-century parts, as well as at the east end. The south-east buttress has been rebuilt. The north elevation contains a 2-light 13th-century window at its eastern end, with two small 13th-century lancets to its west and a blocked north doorway between them. The south elevation also has a 2-light window at its east end, much restored, and a 2-light 15th-century square-headed window at the west end. The central south doorway is tall and narrow with two round-arched orders. The outer order is enriched with sunk star decoration and springs from plain shafts with cushion capitals. The inner order has two cable moulds, and the east jamb is cut away for a stoup. An old studded door with some 20th-century repairs remains in place. Above the doorway is a four-bay blind arcade with round arches, engaged columns and mouldings now barely discernible. The 15th-century addition enclosing the tower is lower in height and has two lancets at its west end. In its south elevation is a pointed doorway and a square wall memorial with an illegible inscription. The bell turret is a mid-20th-century replacement with a splayed square base and short pyramidal spire with a weathervane.

The chancel has a chamfered plinth and string course. Its east elevation contains two round-headed 19th-century windows with sill bands. The north elevation has two 19th-century lancets. The south elevation has pilaster buttresses at each end and also a later central buttress with offsets. The east bay contains a restored 2-light 13th-century window with a hoodmould with returns. The west bay has a pointed doorway and, adjacent to the nave, a rectangular light.

Internally, the 12th-century chancel arch is similarly detailed to the south doorway. Either side is a large round-arched recess containing a two-bay blind arcade with engaged columns and cushion capitals. Above each recess is a plain tympanum. The tower is separated from the nave by a 15th-century timber-framed partition with rendered brick infill. At the centre of the partition is an ogee-headed doorway leading into the tower base, now used as a vestry and panelled with 18th-century box pews. Narrow spaces either side of the vestry contain the massive posts and struts of the old tower framework. The nave roof has 15th-century arch-braced collar and tie-beam trusses with V-struts in the apex. Tie beams, purlins and wall plates are moulded, and tie beams have central bosses. The east end bay has a ceiling divided into compartments painted red and green, with brattished wall plates. The chancel has a waggon roof. A 19th-century piscina with a cusped pointed head is cut into the south-east jamb of the south-east chancel window. 18th-century altar rails with turned balusters are present, along with a circular font with baluster stem, a 19th-century octagonal pulpit, and a parish chest set against the blocked north doorway. A small late 17th-century memorial to John Cecill, died 1697, surmounted by a large coat of arms, is located on the east jamb of the north-east nave window. Numerous ledger slabs in the chancel, mainly from the 18th century and to members of the Milward family, are preserved within the church.

This is a large Norman church of particular interest for its south doorway, chancel arch, tower framework and late medieval roof.