Church of St Michael and All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

This is an Anglican parish church with a complex building history spanning the 14th to 19th centuries. The south tower dates to the 14th and 15th centuries in the Perpendicular style. The chancel was rebuilt by AWN Pugin in 1846–7, while the nave, aisles and north porch were rebuilt by John Hicks in 1857–9 in the Decorated style.

The building is constructed of Forest Marble stone rubble, both coursed and random, with a chamfered plinth and dressed stone quoins. It has a stone slab roof with Hamstone gable copings, and galvanised metal cladding to the roofs of the chancel and south aisle. The church is oriented west to east and comprises a nave, chancel, two aisles, a south tower and a north porch.

The three-stage tower has lower stages of early 14th-century date and an upper stage of 15th-century date. The east wall contains a blocked doorway with chamfered jambs and pointed head. The south wall has an inserted mid-19th-century window of three cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head with moulded reveals. The west elevation has a 19th-century doorway. The second stage has single lights with pointed heads to the north, south and west elevations. Each side of the upper stage has a window of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head with moulded reveals; the lights are filled with stone grilles of pierced quatrefoils. The tower has an embattled parapet, pinnacles and gargoyles, and a 15th-century stair tower to the north-east corner.

The nave and aisles comprise four bays. To the west of the tower, the south aisle has three two-light windows with reticulated quatrefoil heads, separated by buttresses. The west ends of the aisles have diagonal buttresses and no openings. The west window to the nave has four lights with ogival cusping and flowing tracery, and a five-pointed figure made up of mouchettes to the window head. The north aisle has two-light windows with reticulated quatrefoil heads.

The chancel is of two bays with corner buttresses and a central buttress to the north and south walls. Each bay to the north and south sides has a two-light window with ogival cusping and inverted trefoil in the head, under segmental-pointed arches. The east window, beneath a label with head-stops, has three main lights with intersecting tracery, open trefoils and quatrefoils. Stone gable-coping with a cross-in-wheel ornament surmounts the east end.

Interior walls are rendered. The nave is dominated by the 1857–9 arcading, which has quatrefoil piers with varied foliage capitals; the carving is attributed to Richard Boulton of Birmingham. The arches spring from short stubs on the capitals and have depressed heads. There is no clerestorey. The nave has a steep cross- and arch-braced roof carried on stone angel-corbels and a single row of purlins. The organ-chamber fills the easternmost bay of the south aisle. A fairly complete set of mid-19th-century seating occupies the nave and aisle. By the pulpit are two brasses to Thomas Dygenys (1523) and his wife Isabell (1523–4). The floor is laid with encaustic tiles by Minton.

The chancel arch has a pointed head, moulded jambs, responds and naturalistic foliage capitals. The chancel incorporates a 14th-century piscina and drop-sill sedilia with dividers in its south wall. The roof is six-sided and divided into a series of square panels painted blue with gold stars and an IHC symbol on a red quatrefoil over the sanctuary.

At the west end stands a richly-decorated octagonal stone font, a gift from the rector's brother in 1844. The stem is decorated with carved figures, while the bowl depicts Apostles and Evangelists under canopied niches.

The stained glass in the chancel was designed by Pugin and manufactured by Hardman's of Birmingham: the east window depicts the Crucifixion and the south window depicts the Annunciation. The stained glass in the north aisle and the tracery in the south aisle are by Lavers & Barraud, probably dating to 1857–9.