Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church dating back to the 14th century, with significant rebuilding occurring between 1779 and 1882 by Henry Holland, and further alterations in 1897-8. The tower is constructed from irregular blocks of roughly coursed stone, while the rest of the church is built with evenly coursed and galletted stone. The nave has a slate roof, while the chancel and chapels have plain tile roofs.

The tower is 14th century, with a partly rebuilt belfry. It has a low, battered plinth with buttresses at the north-west and south-west angles. The belfry lights are brick-dressed with segmental heads, and there are small chamfered rectangular lights below the belfry on the north and south sides. The west window features two ogee-headed cinquefoiled lights with sub-cusped ogival tracery and a moulded 2-centred arched doorway with a continuous rib. A 19th-century porch with angle buttresses and a 2-centred arched doorway stands to the south of the tower.

The nave, altered in 1897-8, has a south elevation with no visible plinth, a tooled stone eaves band and projecting eaves with flat soffits. Three 19th-century windows are spaced between buttresses. A blocked 4-centred arched doorway with a quatrefoil above, both with raised tooled stone architraves, remains in the east end of the south elevation. A south chapel, built in 1897-8, extends at right angles to the chancel and has a plinth, angle buttresses, a two-light window, and a 2-centred arched doorway. The chancel, also from 1897-8, has a plinth, angle buttresses, and a four-light east window. A north chapel mirrors the south chapel, but lacks a doorway. The north elevation of the nave contains four 19th-century windows alternating with buttresses, alongside a late 18th-century west lancet with a raised tooled surround.

Inside, the church features a broad, aisle-less nave. The 14th-century tower arch is pointed, with three chamfered orders and semi-octagonal shafts with moulded capitals and bases. There are also 19th-century chancel arches and arcades. The nave has a king-post roof. Notable fittings include a display of Royal Arms in the southwest end of the nave, two benefactors' boards under the tower, a board detailing the dates of the church's destruction and rebuilding (1779-82), and a plaque commemorating the chancel's re-opening in 1898. A small marble tablet on the south wall of the nave commemorates Francis Robins, who died in 1720, and another on the north wall commemorates John Smyth, who died in 1732, and members of the Smyth family who lost their monuments in the 1779 fire.