Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Ashford Road

Built in 1862-3 to designs by Gordon M Hills, this church is constructed of Kentish ragstone with freestone dressings and has red clay tile roofs with blackened crested ridge tiles. It is sited on ground which falls away sharply to the south, giving the building considerable dramatic impact from that elevation.

The church is designed in a late 13th-century style and comprises a nave, chancel, south aisle, south tower, northwest porch, and north vestry.

The dominant external feature is a three-storey steeple attached to the southeast part of the nave. It has a projecting square staircase at its southwest corner, terminating in a sloping stone capping at belfry level. The belfry openings are louvred with two-light windows. The spire is of broach type and is decorated with lucarnes on the cardinal faces. The nave and south aisle are covered by a catslide roof. The aisle windows are small, trefoil-headed single lancets. The chancel's south elevation has four cusped lancet windows, considerably larger than those of the aisle. The chancel's east end features a three-light Geometrical-style window with three circles in the head. On the north side, a vestry sits under a catslide roof shared with the chancel. The nave's north side has windows with Y-tracery and cusping.

Internally, the walls are plastered and whitened throughout. The south side of the nave has a three-bay arcade to the aisle with stepped arches and round piers. These piers have moulded octagonal capitals and moulded round bases set on low square plinths. Further arches lead from the aisle and the southeast part of the nave to the base of the tower, which serves as an organ chamber. The chancel arch is also stepped, with semi-circular responds bearing foliage capitals. The nave and chancel have arch-braced roofs, while the aisle has a lean-to roof.

Much Victorian work survives as principal fixtures. At the east end, metal sheets bear the Ten Commandments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer. Behind the altar and below the window, the walls are decorated with a variety of marbles. The octagonal font has an attractive frieze around the top of the bowl and painted lettering at the bottom; its base incorporates four shafts of grey marble. The pulpit, stalls, and nave seats remain, though seating has been removed from the aisle. Stained glass dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. On the north wall of the nave is a white marble monument of 1901 to Seaman Beale, the first vicar, featuring a relief of St Michael trampling on Satan.

To the south stands a red-brick school built in 1861 with additions of 1960-1.

The church was consecrated on 1 August 1863 and originally contained 281 free seats. An application for funding to the Incorporated Church Building Society was made in early January 1861, when the named architects were Goodwin and Butcher of Bedford Row, London, with an estimated cost of £2,125. However, Gordon M Hills ultimately became the architect. Hills (1826-95) served his articles in Southampton and was managing assistant to the celebrated London church architect R C Carpenter from 1850. He commenced independent practice in 1854 and became diocesan surveyor to London, Rochester, and St Albans. His son, also named Gordon (1867-1937), later became his partner and successor.