Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a Grade II* listed building located on St. Michael's Lane in Begbroke. It dates from the late 12th century, with restorations carried out in the 19th century. The church is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, mostly roughcast on the nave and chancel, and features stone-coped gabled roofs made of stone slate, along with a saddleback roof on the tower.

The church consists of a chancel, nave, and a west tower. The east window, designed in a mid-19th century Norman style, is complemented by a similar window with a label mould over a 15th-century one-light window on the south side of the chancel. The two-bay nave contains 19th-century two-light Perpendicular-style windows. A 17th-century plank door with strap hinges is set in the late 12th-century south doorway, which features a zigzag-carved arch supported by columns with zigzag and spiral carvings and cushion capitals. There is also a 17th-century sundial on the south wall.

The three-storey tower is adorned with Norman windows and early 14th-century two-light Decorated bell-openings, along with 14th-century gargoyles at the corners. Inside, the chancel has a late 15th-century aumbry in the north wall, which includes a finely carved cupboard with trailing vines on the door and an openwork grille, along with 15th-century hinges and a lock. The chancel arch, remodelled in 1845, features a round arch set on late 12th-century lozenge and spiral jamb shafts. The church also contains a 15th-century octagonal font with sunk quatrefoils at the base and a fine 17th-century panelled door leading to the tower. The nave boasts a 17th-century three-bay roof with arch-braced collar trusses and moulded tie beams.

Monuments within the chancel include 17th- and 18th-century ledger stones, a late 18th-century tablet for the Cockin family, and a memorial to Robert Fitzherbert, who died in 1636, featuring a shield set in a pediment above a black-slate inscription, flanked by pilasters and topped with a carved skull. The stained glass in the chancel and nave windows includes fragments from the 15th and 16th centuries, 17th-century armorial glass, and armorial glass by T. Willement from 1827, as well as Flemish glass from the 16th and 17th centuries.