Former Church Of St Michael

The former Church of St Michael is a redundant church, now converted into a house. The structure largely dates to the late 14th century, with significant alterations and rebuilding in the early 17th century, and further changes in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The walls are a mix of Kentish ragstone rubble and red brick in English bond, with limestone dressings, and are covered by a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The chancel was demolished and walled off around 1856.

The south wall of the nave and the south porch are late 14th century in origin. Much of the north wall was rebuilt in 1618, and the west wall was refaced in the 18th century. There are eight brick buttresses of varying dates, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The northern wall is largely brick, with inscriptions indicating the year 1618 and the names of ‘Mathew Bets and Robert Pierc’ and ‘Mathew Drakes and Edmund Caitmur’, who were church wardens at that time. This wall features a contemporary window of four round-headed lights in a square head, with restored mullions. To the east of this window is a 20th-century doorway set within an earlier 17th-century aperture, which has a four-centred rear arch. Approximately 2 meters of late 14th-century rubble walling can be seen at the west end of the north wall.

The south wall has two windows; the eastern window is late 14th century, featuring two cinquefoiled lights with recessed spandrels set in a square head, with a moulded label. The cill has been raised at different times, and the jambs and mullion are plastered. The western window, originally similar, was blocked and reduced in the 17th century to a simple chamfered loop. A late 14th-century south doorway has jambs and a two-centred arch, chamfered in two orders. The southwest corner is integrated into an early 17th-century buttress. The west wall is of random coursed rubble, with a visible brick facing from the late 18th century; the window is 18th century and was altered in the 20th century. At the west end of the nave are the remnants of a former belfry, represented by four posts. The nave’s roof is seven-canted, possibly original to the late 14th-century structure, with two later tiebeams showing differing mouldings. Two 20th-century hipped dormers are visible in the roof.

The south porch has a late 14th-century outer archway with hollow-chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch, with repairs to the upper part made using late 16th-century brick. A late 14th-century stoup with hollow-chamfered jambs and a two-centred head is also present, though the bowl is partially damaged. The porch roof is late 16th century, constructed in two bays with clasped purlins and knees to the central collar. A floor slab commemorates M-- ANN D--NISO-, dated 1777. There are indentations, possibly representing figures, approximately dating to around 1450 and 1440.