Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations made in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is constructed of flint, partly rendered over, with limestone dressings and a brick porch. The thatched roof covers the nave and chancel, while the porch has a plain tiled roof.

The church consists of a west tower, nave, chancel, a south porch, and a north vestry. The west tower is round, rendered over, with single-light bell openings featuring plain chamfered stone surrounds. Sound openings, round with pierced wooden infill panels, are located on the north and south sides. A two-light west window, constructed of plastered brick and extensively repaired, has a quatrefoil top light under a semi-circular arch and a drip. A castellated brick parapet tops the tower, and a lead-covered spirelet sits on the roof. A roll-moulded corbel and a re-used kneeler support the gable parapet at the south-west corner of the nave. A single lancet window is situated to the west of the porch. The south porch dates to the 16th century, with diagonal buttresses and a superimposed 17th-century shaped gable; single-light windows are located on the east and west sides.

The nave’s windows were added in the 14th and 15th centuries. A three-light Perpendicular window is centrally located in the south wall, flanked by staged brick buttresses. The chancel wall is a combination of brick and salvaged stone, with two restored two-light Perpendicular windows and a plain priests’ doorway. A slim pilaster buttress is found at the east end. The east gable has short, staged diagonal buttresses, and a gable parapet sits on moulded eaves corbels. A three-light Perpendicular east window is present. In the north wall, between the nave and chancel, is a panel of 18th-century brickwork featuring diaper patterning.

A 19th-century vestry is located on the north side of the nave, and features an external chimney stack on the north gable, capped off, along with single-light windows with cusped heads. The roof, continuous over the nave and chancel, is of arch-braced principal rafters, wall posts, and ashlar pieces on a brattished cornice. Inside, the church contains 17th-century communion rails with turned balusters and pendant bosses, and some 15th-century poppy-head bench ends. Medieval glass fragments, including two figures in the south side of the chancel, are incorporated into the north and south windows. Two panels of black-letter text are in the reveals of the north-west window. A 14th-century font, with an octagonal shaft and bowl on two square steps, has a bowl featuring four deeply undercut winged figures, alternating with twin ogee-headed panels. A 17th-century font cover is present, with a carved frieze and crocketted ribs.