Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Lawhitton

A parish church comprising a 15th-century nave, chancel and south aisle, with a 13th-century tower. The building underwent substantial restoration in the late 19th century. The structure is constructed of roughly coursed slate stone to the nave and chancel with granite to the windows; polyphant stone forms the tower and south chancel aisle with granite to the porch. The roofs are graded slate with tile cresting and stepped coped verges.

The tower stands in three diminishing stages without buttresses, featuring chamfered string courses, an embattled parapet and plain corner pinnacles. The first stage on the south side contains a three-light 15th-century window with hoodmould. The second stage has a segmental-headed slate-louvred window. The belfry contains paired slate-louvred windows with hollow spandrels on all sides, all with segmental relieving arches; the south and west examples have cusped heads and labels. A projecting rectangular staircase turret occupies the north-east corner, with plain corner pinnacles, chamfered rectangular slit openings and a 4-centred chamfered doorway at its base.

The nave's north side is buttressed in three bays and contains square-headed 15th-century windows of triple cinquefoil-headed lights with hollow spandrels and labels to the two west bays, and a two-light window to the east bay, all with segmental relieving arches. The west end features a 19th-century five-light window with panel tracery and hoodmould.

The chancel's north side is lit by 19th-century three-light windows in decorated style with hoodmoulds, and a similar five-light window to the east. The south aisle contains all-15th-century three-light windows with panel tracery, 4-centred arches and hoodmoulds, positioned to the east and west walls, one to the right of the porch, and two to the buttressed section to the right of the tower. A chamfered eaves cornice runs along this aisle. An infilled segmental-arched chamfered doorway lies beneath the easternmost window on the south.

The gabled 15th-century porch has a 4-centred outer arch with label and weathered Perpendicular tracery to the spandrels. The inner doorway is probably 19th-century Tudor-arched with quatrefoils and trefoils to the spandrels and a label. Above this stands a 15th-century ogee-arched image recess, and a crudely carved holy water stoup sits to the right. The porch displays an exposed waggon roof with carved ribs, rafters and bosses.

The interior of the nave retains a heavily restored 15th-century arch-braced triple-purlin roof in seven bays with a St Andrew's cross to each panel between purlin and principal rafter. The principal rafters are painted, with foliated crosses intersecting with St Andrew's crosses forming a celure to the east bay. The chancel possesses a 19th-century hammerbeam roof with carved angles, some possibly 19th-century and reused. The south aisle has an exposed waggon roof with bosses to the centre rail and small carved figures to the wall-plate at the division between the main part of the aisle and the south chancel aisle.

A nave arcade of five bays continues uninterrupted into the chancel with no structural division. It comprises granite moulded segmental arches supported on clustered columns with moulded capitals and bases (of the type found at the Church of St Briochus, Lezant). A pointed single-chamfered tower arch dies into responds. The tower contains a panelled roof (forming the floor of the second stage) with bosses at intersections and a narrow pointed chamfered doorway to the stair turret.

The nave benches are 19th-century but incorporate 15th-century carved bench ends. A panelled pulpit dated "1665" rests on a short moulded wooden column, with carved floral motifs to the top row of panels; a bracketed ledge bears a brass sconce dated "1887". The raised chancel and sanctuary feature 19th-century encaustic tiles and are furnished with a 19th-century wooden reredos with contemporary blind Gothic tracery panels of stone to either side. A 19th-century trefoil-headed aumbry appears in the north wall of the sanctuary, and a 19th-century screen separates it from the east bay of the chancel aisle.

A 12th-century Hicks Grey Mill Stone stands as an important interior feature. Its front has a carved head at each corner with a carved leaf emblem encircled by a twin-headed serpent to each face, and an octagonal base. The west side is partly cut away with traces of paint adhering, suggesting it formerly abutted one of the arcade columns. A bench in the south-west corner of the aisle has turned balusters to its back, possibly reused from 17th-century communion rails. A granite Celtic cross-head lies on the floor of the chancel aisle.

Late 19th-century stained glass is distributed throughout the church. The monuments include 19th-century wall memorials in the nave and tower, and a grave slab of Robert Bennet (died 1683) with an incised armorial shield, formerly in the floor but now fixed on the wall next to the door. A Coade stone memorial by Coade and Sealy of Lambeth commemorates Richard Goffic (died 1796) and stands at the east end of the chancel aisle; it takes the form of a sarcophagus with a figure of a woman reclining on a draped urn, formerly accompanied by attendant putti.