Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This church at Betchworth has Saxon origins with Pre-Conquest fragments surviving in the tower. The building was substantially developed in the later 11th century with a Pre-Conquest crossing tower, followed by enlargement in the early 13th century. The south aisle dates from around 1200, while the north aisle is slightly later, with the chancel and Lady Chapel to the south added in the later 13th century.

The church was restored by E. C. Hakewill in 1850, at which time the original Norman crossing tower was moved and a new tower was built at the end of the south aisle. Further restorations followed in 1870.

The structure is built of chalk rubble with clunch and firestone dressings, which were replaced in the 19th century by Bath stone. The upper stage of the tower displays fine ashlar work, and the roofs are covered with Horsham slabs. The building originally consisted of a low, Saxon stone church with a central Norman crossing tower. It now features a tower to the south, a transept and vestry to the north, and porches to the west and south.

The south aisle has a pentice extension with 14th-century windows and a clear-storey above. The three-stage tower has a half-octagonal buttress and broaches to its west face, a corbel band with floral bosses on the parapet, and one two-light louvred window to each face of the upper stage. The middle stage has lancet windows on each face, and the lower stage's south face has a 19th-century three-stepped-light window under a plain arch.

The Lady Chapel features a 19th-century net tracery window on its east end and a 14th-century window on the south side. The chancel's east end has diagonal buttresses and two 19th-century Decorated-style windows, the largest containing three roundels. Three lancets appear on the north chancel wall.

The vestry, positioned at right angles to the chancel, has a gable end with a roundel and a Tudor-style door. The north transept is a 19th-century addition with a gable end crucifix and a stepped plate-tracery window. The north aisle features a clear-storey with alternating square and round leaded windows. Its 14th-century aisle windows are small two-light openings with trefoil-head designs and cusped vesica-shaped quatrefoils above, under plain hood mouldings (circa 1320). A two-light window to the west has cinque-foil heads under a pointed segmental arch, with hood moulding terminals carved as heads. A 19th-century window also appears to the west.

The porches have doors under hood moulds with ball flower stops and chamfered broach-stop surrounds. The south porch incorporates half-pier responds and a hood mould.

Interior

The interior features plain cusped braced roofing. The tower contains a 15th-century timber roof, which was moved with the tower in the 19th century. The nave arcades date from around 1200 with round piers and half-octagonal pier responds to the north. The south arcade has three bays with one round pier and one octagonal pier, both featuring moulded plinths and caps. The chancel arch is 13th-century in origin but was raised and widened in 1850. Adjacent nave arches of similar date feature three recessed chamfered orders, with one capital of Pre-Conquest date reset in the tower. This arch displays eight circular roll mouldings stacked one above the other.

The arch between the south aisle and tower is post-Conquest 11th-century work, originally a crossing arch and reset in 1850. It has two square orders and cushion capitals on chamfered abaci. The south chancel arcade has three bays with two orders—the outer square-edged and the inner chamfered—on octagonal and circular caps of heavy round piers with shallow octagonal responds.

Fittings include an arched aumbry by the south door. The font is a tub font on a round plinth, created in 1951 by Eric Kennington, featuring carvings of St Michael and the Madonna with chain links to the base. A florid multi-coloured marble pulpit of around 1885 incorporates five different stone types with inlay panels of Faith, Hope, and Love on a triple columned stem, accompanied by a wrought-iron balustrade to the stair.