Church Of St Michael And St Felix

The Church of St Michael and St Felix is a parish church, originally built as the church of a Benedictine Priory founded around 1065. It was later transferred in the 12th century to St Mary’s, York. The church primarily dates to the 13th and 15th centuries, and includes a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch. The construction uses random flint, with some rendering, red brick repairs, and freestone dressings, all covered by shallow-pitched lead roofs.

The west tower is unusually wide, matching the width of the nave, and features low-angle buttresses and a timber-framed and weatherboarded top stage with a hipped, plaintiled roof. The west door has a continuous double chamfer, and above it are three tall lancet windows, the central window being taller than the others. Inside, the tower arch is notably high. The early 16th-century south porch has a later 19th-century Gothic exterior, featuring an ogee-headed doorway and panelled double doors. The interior of the porch has a timber roof with an embattled cornice. The south doorway is a two-centred arch with a simple chamfer and a Gothic panelled door.

The nave and chancel date to the mid-15th century, with two-light traceried windows along the south side. Fragments of old glass and bullseye glass are visible at the tops of the window lights. The north wall originally lacked windows, being backed by conventual buildings, but two 2-light rectangular windows with diamond-leaded panes were inserted into the nave, likely in the 17th century.

The nave roof is arch-braced with triangular collars extending into the apex. Cavetto mouldings feature on the braces, collars, and purlins, with large, somewhat damaged flowers at the intersections of purlins and principal rafters; an embattled cornice is also present. Three later tie-beams with king-posts have been needled and bolted through the walls. The 11th bay at the west end is different, being plain, with purlins at a different level and no cornice, indicating a later addition.

The font sits on a low octagonal base with a panelled shaft, replaced bowl, simple Jacobean cover with a spike finial. There is a set of poppy-head bench-ends, some replacements, with varied designs, along with later benches and panelled backs, two of which display a Jacobean frieze of formalised leaves. A fine high chancel arch screen comprises eight one-light divisions with applied tracery at the base and ogee heads with drop tracery, showcasing intricate carving at the tops of the lights. A small, simply-panelled Jacobean pulpit, dated 1637, rests on a single shaft with scroll brackets. The nave floor is of old floor bricks, and a row of 18th-century black ledger slabs commemorates members of the Davy family. The chancel was Victorianised and the east window has been restored. A 13th-century doorway and a narrow squint with a grated watching-window above are found in the north wall, relating to the former conventual buildings.