Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

Large parish church dating from around 1300, with alterations and partial rebuilding around 1500. It was extensively restored between 1857 and 1862 by T.H. Wyatt. The building is constructed of flint with Bath stone dressings, originally of chalk, and features steeply pitched tiled gable roofs. The plan comprises a south tower, nave, north and south aisles, chancel, and north and south chapels.

The tower is built of flint rubble with chalk dressings. It has three receding stages with angle buttresses of four offsets at the southern corners. A square stair turret, slightly projecting, occupies the north-west angle with the nave and has an embattled parapet rising above the embattled parapet of the tower itself. The doorway in the south wall, restored in 1875, has a moulded two-centred head with jambs featuring traceried spandrels within a square external label, with a pointed arch of chalk above. The ringing stage is lit on the east and west faces by small single square-headed trefoiled lights. The bell chamber has windows of two cinquefoiled lights on each face, with pierced stone panels and vertical tracery within two-centred heads. A clock face is set within the third stage on the south. The ground stage is ceiled by a form of sexpartite vault with a central circular opening and moulded diagonal, transverse and ridge ribs with bosses at the intersections. The vault springs from triple vaulting shafts with moulded bell capitals with octagonal abaci and moulded bases with octagonal plinths on low stone podia with moulded cappings.

The south aisle south front has two two-stage buttresses and four windows. The three easternmost windows are coupled lancets; between the second and third windows are the remains of a 13th-century pointed-arched doorhead, now filled with flint. The westernmost window is a single trefoiled light. On the west front of the south aisle is a single three-light window with reticulated tracery.

The nave's west end has two two-stage buttresses and a 19th-century three-light window with geometrical tracery. Below this is a 19th-century door under a pointed chamfered arch with hoodmould and foliage ends.

The north aisle has five two-stage buttresses and four windows. The easternmost window is late 15th-century with three cinquefoil lights under a traceried square head. The other three windows are early 14th-century, reset, except the westernmost which is a 19th-century copy; each has two trefoiled lights with a foliated spherical triangle within a two-centred head.

The north chapel has three three-stage buttresses and its flat roof line is higher than the eaves line of the north aisle.

The chancel's east window is a four-cinquefoil light with a traceried four-centred head. The two windows in the north front are each of two similar lights with traceried heads. All are 19th-century but incorporate older material.

The south chapel has a 19th-century stone porch with large curved brackets, stone-slated pent roof, and a pointed moulded arched stone architrave with foliated spandrels and plank door. A 19th-century three-light window appears on the left and a two-light window on the right, both with cusped trefoiled and traceried heads.

In the interior, six-bay nave arcades feature two-centred arches of two orders, each moulded with a sunk quarter-round, supported by octagonal columns. The eastern arches are wider; the eastern arch of the south arcade is built of original chalk voussoirs from the earlier church. The south doorway is probably 14th-century with a two-centred head and two orders, each moulded with a sunk quarter-round. To the east of the south doorway is a recessed holy water stoup with moulded jambs and a segmental two-centred head. To the west of the south doorway is an octagonal font with quatrefoil panels and a wooden cover made in 1647, as recorded in the churchwardens' accounts for that year. The chancel has a two-bay arcade on the north and south; that on the south, leading to the south chapel, is early 14th-century and of chalk. It has two-centred arches of two orders, each moulded with a sunk quarter-round, supported by an octagonal column and responds with moulded capitals and bases. The north arcade was rebuilt in the 19th century to match the south arcade. The chancel arch has two moulded orders, and a late 15th-century doorway in the north wall of the chancel leads to the vestry. The roofs are 19th-century; the nave has a plain braced collar roof of six bays, and the chancel has an arched braced collar roof of four bays.

The church contains several brasses of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Against the west wall of the north aisle is a sepulchral stone decorated with a foliated cross with the letters LAG on the arms. On the north wall of the chancel is a mural monument with an egg and dart frame to William Goddard of Philibert (died 1609), founder of Jesus Hospital, and Joyce Maunsell his wife (died 1622). Within two niches under an entablature and broken pediment supported by marble Corinthian columns are painted three-quarter figures of William Goddard and his wife, with a shield of arms over the entablature.