Parish Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels

This parish church at Leaden Roding was built in the 11th and 13th centuries, with significant alterations in the 14th, 15th and 19th centuries. It is constructed of flint rubble with some freestone mixed in, with freestone dressings and tiled roofs.

The church comprises a nave dating from the late 11th century, a 13th-century chancel, and a 15th-century bell turret at the west end of the nave. The north wall of the nave was rebuilt in the 14th century. In the 19th century the building was restored, part of the south wall of the nave was rebuilt, and a north vestry and south porch were added.

The chancel measures 7.8 by 7 metres and has a 19th-century east window. In its south wall are two windows: the eastern is a single round-headed light with 19th-century external appearance but plastered internally, and the western is entirely 19th-century. Between them is a 19th-century doorway. Between this doorway and the eastern window, the 13th-century head of a lancet window is visible externally but blocked internally. There is no chancel arch. The roof of the chancel has an unusually shallow pitch with a 7-canted form. Thin collars are lap-jointed to the rafters with thin collar-braces tenoned at both ends. The walls appear to have spread, distorting the roof, and most of the ashlar pieces have been reset. The date of this roof is uncertain.

The nave measures 11.8 by 6.5 metres. In the north wall are two windows. The eastern is 15th-century with two cinquefoiled lights and a quatrefoil in a 4-centred head, much restored, with a reset moulded label and head stops; this label is dated to the 14th century. The western window is early 14th-century with two cinquefoiled lights in a 2-centred head and moulded label, partly restored, and has two incomplete wrought-iron grills at the top. Between these windows is a 14th-century north doorway with moulded jambs and a shallow 2-centred hollow-moulded arch. Above it is a small window with a shallow segmental head and wrought-iron grill, now covered by the 19th-century vestry; the internal arch has a plain chamfered shallow 2-centred head. In the south wall is a single round-headed light with 19th-century external appearance and plastered interior; further west is the late 11th-century south doorway with plain jambs, a semi-circular arch, and grooved and chamfered imposts. The window in the west wall is 19th-century.

The nave roof is in four bays, 7-canted like the chancel roof, but with two collars to each rafter couple, fully tenoned. The wallplates are moulded with waves and beaks and are embattled, dated to the 14th century, but they are severed at the west end where the bell turret was inserted. The four posts and east tiebeam of this turret have double hollow-chamfer mouldings with arch braces and saltire bracing at the sides, dating to the late 15th or early 16th century. The turret is weatherboarded with a shingled spire.

The church contains three bells, one inscribed 'John Aylet Gave Me In the Vorchip (worship) Of the Trinite Ao. 1523'. The communion rail is moulded with turned balusters with intermediate balusters removed, dated to the mid-17th century. The font has an octagonal bowl with moulded lower edge and plain stem, dating to the 14th century, with two staples and a 17th-century cover with a shaped cross-piece as handle. The south window of the chancel contains three foliated quarries and fragments of 14th-century glass. A piscina in the north wall of the nave at the east end has a hollow chamfered 2-centred head and foiled drain, dated to the early 14th century, though the drain is broken. The poor box is made from a 15th or 16th-century moulded post, hollow and fixed to the nave floor, with a 17th-century lid, cross-straps and staples. The pulpit is octagonal with a ribbed trumpet-stem, moulded top and lower rails, sides with traceried panels, embattled rail and quatrefoil lower panels, and buttresses at angles, dating to the early 16th century with a 19th-century base. Moulded rails of the early 16th century are incorporated into 19th-century seating.