Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church largely dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, with a 19th-century remodelling of the east end. It is constructed of flint with limestone dressings, and has slate roofs. The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, a north porch, and a south vestry.

The 14th-century west tower has diagonal buttresses rising to the bell stage. It features 2-light bell openings with cusped Y-tracery and a 3-light C15 west window. The tower is topped with an embattled parapet and plain corner pinnacles. An earlier, steeper roof pitch is visible on the east face of the tower. A 19th-century vestry is located on the south side, featuring a coped gable parapet on moulded kneelers and a circular gable window with leaded glazing, along with a lean-to addition. The early 19th-century nave windows are of 3 lights, set within red brick surrounds and have elliptical arched heads. Staged buttresses divide the bays, and a blocked opening is present in the south wall. The south chancel wall incorporates a blocked southwest window and a blocked square-headed low-side window. A 14th-century priests door is present, bearing a scratch dial with a possible date mark of 1595 above it. A 2-light south east window, with cusped Y-tracery, is set alongside angle buttresses to the east gable wall. The gable has been extensively rebuilt, incorporating an apex of red brick, and an additional 2-light 19th-century east window with Y-tracery and a semicircular head, set within a raised red brick surround with a rubbed arch and raised key and imposts. The north chancel has two 2-light windows with cusped Y-tracery, with a priests doorway between them and now blocked in red brick. The upper part of the nave's north wall has been rebuilt in red brick. The north porch has a rendered gable and small, square-headed east and west windows, with a 14th-century doorway featuring a dogtooth hoodmould. The nave roof is 15th century, with arch-braced principals on wallposts; roll-moulded ridges and purlins with bosses at the intersections of ridge and principals. Fragments of wall painting are visible between the wallposts on the south wall. A rectangular recess in the south nave wall has a 14th-century hoodmould with head stops and inset iron grills. The C14 tower arch exhibits polygonal capitals and half-shafts. The chancel was remodelled in the 19th century, with a cored and plastered ceiling. A 19th-century stone dado with pilaster-buttresses is in place, flanking the altar with triple ogee-headed niches. The church also contains good 18th and 19th-century wall monuments to the Beauchamp Proctor family. The font is 15th-century, octagonal in shape, with quatrefoil panels to the bowl, an arcaded stem, and an octagonal base. A significant collection of foreign glass is present, including four 16th-century panels located in the east window, reportedly brought from Rouen Cathedral in 1787 by Lady Beauchamp Proctor.