Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This parish church dates from the 12th century with early 14th-century alterations and was substantially restored in the mid-19th century. It is constructed of sandstone rubble, partly coursed and dressed with ashlar dressings and repairs. The roofs are plain tiled with decorative ridge tiles and a cross-finial at the east end. A timber bell turret, weatherboarded with an oak shingled spire, rises at the west end.

The church comprises a three-bay nave with north and south doorways (the north blocked), a south porch and west bell turret, plus a two-bay chancel with a north vestry.

The north doorway is weather-worn and projects 9 inches beyond the wall-face. It has a semi-circular head composed of two chevron-moulded orders resting on large engaged shafts with rudimentary leaf capitals and chamfered enriched abaci. The tympanum is carved with a Tree of Life—the only surviving example of this motif in Worcestershire—surrounded by a semi-circular border of six-pointed stars with a cable moulding at the lower edge. The north elevation also features an original round-headed light at its eastern end. The nave's western end was rebuilt in the 19th century and contains a 3-light west window with a hoodmould.

The south elevation displays a pair of 19th-century cusped lancets at its eastern end, a cusped lancet in the 19th-century walling at the western end, and an original round-headed light immediately west of the south porch. The south porch is a 19th-century timber-framed addition on a tall stone plinth with a steeply-pitched gabled roof. Its entrance is a cusped pointed archway flanked by similar openings. The collar and tie-beam truss above the archway has boarded panels pierced with quatrefoils above and below the collar, and three square panels appear in each side elevation. The 14th-century south doorway has an acutely pointed arch with a wide sunk moulding continued down the jambs.

The west bell turret is square in plan with three pointed arched louvred bell-chamber openings immediately beneath the eaves level in each face. The shingled broach spire features swept-eaves, a finial and a weathervane.

The chancel's east end window is a 19th-century insertion of three stepped lights with trefoil lights above, beneath a hoodmould, with a cusped central main light. The north elevation has an original round-headed light to the east of the vestry. The south elevation displays a pair of cusped lancets with 14th-century jambs and rear arch but 19th-century surrounds. The north vestry is a 19th-century addition with a gabled roof, a pointed window at its north end and a pointed doorway in its east side.

Interior

The chancel arch is 12th-century with a semi-circular arched head of two chevron-moulded orders on the west side and square jambs with moulded imposts continued to the side walls of the nave. The nave has a 19th-century ashlared arch-braced collar rafter roof, though some rafters in the east bay are probably 14th-century. The chancel features a 19th-century match-boarded barrel roof. A cusped, ogee-arched piscina survives, partly of 14th-century date. The stone font on marble columns and the three-sided timber pulpit are both 19th-century. The vestry contains a 17th-century oak altar table with turned legs. Above the blocked north doorway hangs a large hatchment bearing the Hanoverian royal arms.

The nave contains memorials to John Taylor (died 1760) with fine detailing, Ann Andrewse (died 1775), and an obelisk-shaped memorial to Sarah Downes (died 1802). The east window contains very early Morris glass depicting an Adoration of the Child flanked by angels, commemorating a death in 1863.