Church Of St Michael

The Church of St. Michael is a Grade II* listed church located in Letcombe Bassett. It dates back to the 12th century and was remodeled around 1861 by architect William Butterfield. The building is constructed from coursed rubble made of chalk and sarsen, with limestone quoins and dressings, topped by a tile roof. The church features a 12th-century chancel, while the nave was remodeled and the south aisle and vestry were added around 1861. The west tower, built in the late 13th century, is notable for its diagonal buttresses.

The east window is a two-light design that has been much restored. The north wall of the chancel includes a 12th-century round-headed lancet and a fine doorway with a roll-moulded arch and scalloped capitals, which display four carved signs of the Evangelists. The south wall of the chancel features a similar 12th-century lancet and two late 13th-century windows. The mid-19th-century vestry has pointed arches on the doors in its end walls.

On the south wall of the nave, there are two 15th-century three-light windows and a three-light ogee-headed window from around 1861. The gabled porch, also from around 1861, has a limestone ashlar front and a flint side wall, with a pierced gable end bargeboard. The north wall of the nave contains a three-light late 13th-century window and a late 13th-century door with a fillet and roll-moulded architrave. The south aisle, added around 1861, features one-, two-, and three-light windows. Both the nave and chancel have gabled roofs, while the west tower has a late 13th-century two-light window set in a late 17th or early 18th-century English bond brick wall.

Inside, the church has a polychrome reredos with colored inlaid stone, tiled bands around the chancel walls, a piscina, altar rail, benches, floor tiles, and a two-bay canted roof, all dating from around 1861. The 12th-century chancel arch is adorned with carved leaf trails on the abaci of the responds. There is a trefoil-headed niche for images on the east wall of the nave, which has blocked access to the rood above. The nave also contains a trefoiled pulpit, lectern, prayer desk, benches, and a screen to the tower room, all from around 1861. The limestone font has a circular bowl that narrows to an octagonal base, with a cover likely from around 1861, and there is a pointed stoup next to the south door. The church features late 19th-century stained glass windows and a four-bay 17th-century common rafter roof, with arch-braced collars in the porch roof.