Church Of St Michael

Parish church of Norman origin with significant developments through the 13th to 19th centuries. The building stands on the south side of Clevedon Lane in Clapton in Gordano.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, north chapel, chancel and north chancel chapel. It is constructed from sandstone and limestone rubble with limestone dressings, and has slate roofs with raised coped verges, crestings and cross finials. The north chapel and chancel chapel are rendered with lead and slate roofs respectively.

The west tower is in two stages. It features a lancet window of two lights with Y-tracery under a hood mould with dog-tooth on the west face. The second stage has a single pointed-arched bell-opening with wooden louvres on each side, and small lancets to north and south below. Large diagonal weathered buttresses support the tower, which has a string course and parapet with pierced cusped triangles and gargoyle corbels. A small lean-to building is attached to the north side.

The nave shows evidence of alteration through its history, with a former lower roofline visible to west and east. The north side contains a blocked pointed-arched door and paired lancet with trefoil heads. A tall two-light window with cusped lights and hood mould is visible, along with a sanctus bellcote to the east. An attached single-storey stone building with pointed-arched door stands on the north side. The three-bay south side has a similar two-light cusped window and a three-light Perpendicular-style window with flat head and crocketed hood mould. An external stair turret to the east, with pitched stone roof and lancet, served the former rood stair.

The south porch is two-storey and gabled, set in the central bay of the nave. It has a pointed-arched doorway with wave mouldings and hood mould, and a two-light cusped window above with hood mould. Heavy long-and-short limestone quoins are prominent, and the wall steps forward to the right for access to a stair serving the former upper chamber.

The north chapel dates to around 1300 and features a tall three-light east window of stepped cusped lancets, a two-light north window with cusped Y-tracery (now blocked), and a tall west lancet. Its walls are battered.

The two-bay chancel is Perpendicular in style with a three-light east window, two three-light south windows with cusped lights and hood moulds, and a central priest's door with pointed arch and roll-moulding. A similar three-light north window is present. The north chancel chapel, set in the angle, has a similar three-light north window and a pointed-arched two-light east window with stopped hood mould.

Interior features include a pointed arch in the tower with keel-moulded shafts with masks at the tops. A fine wooden screen, probably early 14th century and said to have come from Clapton Court, features two pointed arches with roll-mouldings, plain shafts and a shield of arms in the central spandrel, with a central circular opening and brattished top.

The nave has an eight-bay roof with arched-braces, collars, one row of purlins and ridge purlin. All principals are moulded with carved bosses along the purlins, and there is a cornice and brattished wall-plate. South windows have rere-arches, one hollow-chamfered and one wave-moulded. An ogee-headed chamfered south door leads to the rood stair, while the former upper door is blocked. A wide pointed arch with two chamfered orders and hood mould opens to the chancel, with triple jamb shafts bearing foliage on the capitals. A squint is present to the left, and the two upper east lights have splayed reveals to inner sides only.

The porch has an arched-brace and collar roof with moulded wall-plate, stone benches to the sides, and a mutilated Norman tympanum above a triangular-headed door with narrow wave-moulding. A trefoil-headed holy water stop stands to the right, and there is a recess for an image above the door and a small upper niche with moulded pointed arch.

The north chapel has a four-bay 19th-century roof of arched-brace, collar and collar purlin. Former tie-beams are cut off below wall-plates with corbels remaining to the south. A hood mould spans the arch to the nave, and a piscina with cusped arch is present, with a base for an image on the east wall. A four-centred arched door opens to the north chancel chapel.

The chancel has a four-bay roof probably representing 19th-century reconstruction incorporating earlier fabric, including carved figures at the bases of principals. A pointed segmental-headed south door is present, and a 19th-century reconstructed piscina with jamb shafts stands to the south. A north squint to the chapel has a fragment of decorative painting above it. A pointed arch, comparable to the nave arch and with restored capitals, opens to the north chancel chapel. The east wall features a reredos with embattled cornice and fleuron frieze, with Purbeck shafts to left and right, reset upside down with stiff-leaf capitals.

The north chancel chapel has a 19th-century common rafter roof.

Fittings include a font in the nave with a quatrefoil bowl of 13th-century date and later carved faces on its undersides. Early 14th-century benches with tripartite tops stand to the rear of the nave. A wooden chest dated 1705 and a 19th-century carved wooden pulpit are also present.

Monuments include an alabaster monument in the north chapel to Edmund Wynter (died 1672) and his wife, featuring two kneeling figures with their daughter sitting under a prayer desk, Corinthian columns, an open segmental pediment and allegorical figures. 17th-century ledger stones are present. Stone tablets in the nave commemorate Joseph Smith (died 1745) and his wife Speed, and Edward Willis (died 1717) and his wife Sarah. A painted stone oval tablet with wreath, cherub and skull in the chancel commemorates Ann Hinkes (died 1701).