Church of St Michael and All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

This is a parish church of 13th-century origin, of which the north aisle survives from that period. A north chapel was added in the mid 14th century. The nave and transept were rebuilt in the mid 15th century, and the tower may date from this period as well. The church underwent partial restoration in 1872 by the architect G.E. Street.

The building is constructed of dark brown conglomerate (ferricrete) with freestone dressings, Bath stone and chalk. The plinth is stone-coped with a moulded string at sill level. The chancel and north chapel have a stone cornice and plain parapet, while the remainder of the church has plain walls with projecting eaves. The roof is coped and gabled, varying in height, and covered with a mixture of plain and old clay tiles with crested ridges.

The plan consists of a tower attached to the south-west, a nave with north aisle, north chapel, south transept, south porch, and chancel.

The tower has three stages with diagonal buttresses at the western corners and a stair turret on the south-east. It has an embattled parapet and a low octagonal shingled spire. The west doorway features moulded jambs and a two-centred arch under a square head with foliated spandrels. Above this is a window of four cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery and a two-centred head. The bell chamber has windows of two trefoiled lights on each side and in the west face of the middle stage. On the south-east corner is a full-height stair turret with small lancets placed one above the other at wide intervals.

The north aisle has three windows on its north front. The easternmost window dates to the late 15th century and has three cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery under a three-centred head; fragments of two blocked 13th-century lancets lie either side of it. The second window is 15th-century with two cinquefoiled lights and a small pierced spandrel under a two-centred head with moulded label. The third window is a small 13th-century lancet. Between the first and second windows is an early 13th-century doorway with an ogee head under a square lintel with foiled spandrels. At the east end is a curved projection of a roof stair. At the west end is a large 16th-century window of five cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a plain square head.

The north chapel has three windows on its north front between two stage buttresses. The two outer windows are 14th-century with two cinquefoiled lights and quatrefoiled spandrels. The centre window is a 19th-century copy. The east window is late 15th-century with three cinquefoiled lights with interlacing tracery.

The south front of the nave has two windows: the easternmost is 15th-century with two cinquefoiled lights, and the other is late 15th-century with three cinquefoiled lights under a plain square head. Between these windows is a late 15th-century doorway with moulded jambs and a four-centred arch under a square head. The gabled porch is 19th-century.

The south transept has a two-light east window and a three-light south window, both 19th-century and in 15th-century style.

The chancel has a 14th-century east window of five cinquefoiled lights with flamboyant tracery in a two-centred head. The north window and four south windows are 14th-century with two lights, cinquefoiled heads and pierced spandrels. The south-west window has a transom and two lower lights with cinquefoiled subheads.

Interior

The nave has a fine 15th-century roof of five bays with chamfered arch-braced collars, moulded clasped purlins and large moulded tie beams. Plain arched windbraces support the roof. The aisle roof is similar. The nave arcade consists of five bays with two-centred arches supported by octagonal columns with moulded bases and capitals. A barrel roof covers the chancel. The chancel arcade has three bays with piers, responds and arches that are continuously moulded. Between the east respond of the arcade and the north-east window is a large 14th-century recess with a vaulted soffit, of which only part remains. West of a 19th-century stone screen, behind the altar, is a 14th-century piscina and three sedilia divided by moulded mullions with pinnacled buttresses and cinquefoiled ogee arches with carved spandrels, foliated crockets and finials. To the south of the chancel arch is a squint cutting into the splay of the south-west window of the chancel. On the north side is a second squint cut straight through the wall, giving a view of the north-east corner of the chancel.

In the north wall of the north chapel are three fine 14th-century shallow arched recesses with apices of arches featuring trefoiled spandrels and foliated crockets and finials. At the east end of the north wall of the aisle is a rood stair leading to a rood loft, which was reconstructed in the 15th century. Parts of the original rood loft are incorporated into the 15th-century screen. The north chapel has four bays with a doorway in the centre.

Monuments

On the south wall of the chancel is a small Renaissance monument to Thomas Williamson, died 1611. Above the inscription are kneeling figures of himself and his wife with their children in the background. In the south-east corner of the north chapel is a small early 17th-century wall monument without inscription or date, featuring kneeling effigies of a man, his wife and children. On the opposite side is a similar monument, also without inscription, with figures of a man and two women kneeling.

Stained Glass

Some pieces of late 14th-century glass survive in the tracery of the east window of the chancel, representing principal events of Christ's life. In the lights of the 19th-century south window of the south transept is some restored 15th-century glass consisting of six figures.