Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church with a complex building history spanning from the 13th century to the early 20th century. The chancel dates from the 13th century and the tower from the 14th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1759 by Sir Francis Fust. An early 18th-century Fust mortuary chapel was restored or rebuilt in the 19th century. The chancel underwent restoration in 1870 by Ewan Christian, and the porch was rebuilt with buttresses added in 1909 by William Weir and Temple Moore.

The church is constructed of limestone and sandstone rubble, partly rendered, with the porch and buttresses in rock-faced rubble and stone dressings throughout. The roof is stone-slated with weathered raised coped verges to the chancel and mortuary chapel, topped with a cross finial to the chancel. The nave has a coved wooden eaves cornice.

The building comprises a west tower and vestry, nave, chancel with a south mortuary chapel and porch. The architectural style is Early English.

The three-stage west tower stands on a plinth and features a two-light west window with cusped tracery and hood mould at the first stage. At the third stage on all sides is a two-light window with trefoil heads and bell louvres. At the second stage on the south is a single light with a trefoil head and stone bell louvres. A northwest stair turret has lancets with ogee chamfered heads, a pyramidal top, and a ribbed spire with finial and cockerel weathervane. A small north door with triangular head and lucarnes pierce the tower. Freestone weathered angle buttresses and strings complete the tower.

The three-bay nave has three windows to the north and two to the south, all with pointed segmental heads and square leaded lights. Those on the north have hood moulds and are slightly narrower. A gabled porch in the second bay from the left has a finial and sundial above its chamfered, round-headed opening. The porch contains a double door with segmental head. The east gable has a sanctus bellcote with cornice, ribbed spire and finial. Buttresses and a coved wooden eaves cornice complete the exterior.

The single-bay chancel has a two-light north window matching those at the west end and a three-light east window with rosette stops to the hood mould. Weathered raised coped verges and a cross finial crown the chancel. A rainwater head dated 1870 is visible.

The mortuary chapel has a two-light east window with hood mould and round stops, with tracery matching the west window. Weathered raised coped verges finish the chapel. The south side has a two-light window with hood mould and a pointed arched door with chamfered surround and hood mould. A trefoil-headed window with leaded lights, moulded surround and rosette stops to the hood mould is also present on the south.

A single-storey vestry to the south of the tower has a pointed arched door and pitched roof.

Interior

The tower has a rib vault springing from corbels ornamented with ball-flower. The west window sits in a deep splayed reveal with a double-chamfered pointed arch. A small studded door with strap hinges opens into the tower, framed by a pointed double-chamfered arch. The pointed tower arch consists of two chamfered arches.

The nave windows all sit in splayed reveals with slender hood moulds and stops. The south door has a segmental head with matching hood mould. A plaster ceiling covers the nave.

A high round-headed chancel arch with chamfered surround divides the nave from the chancel. The chancel retains one original 13th-century lancet with leaded lights to the south; the others were restored in 1870. Two-light windows appear to the north and south, and a three-light window to the east, all with inner chamfered segmental heads. A heavy plank door with strap hinges leads to the mortuary chapel, mounted in a plain frame and bearing a coat of arms on a shield. The chancel roof has ten narrow bays with scissors trusses rising from a moulded wall plate. The nave and chancel share a black and cream chequered tiled floor.

The mortuary chapel has two-light windows to the east and west matching those in the chancel, and a single light to the south with a trefoil head, leaded lights and a chamfered segmental head to the inner arch. A pointed arched plank door on the south has a chamfered pointed segmental head. The floor is black and white chequered marble. The roof is a five-bay wagon roof with arch-braces on corbels bearing shields to the north, divided into twenty panels with moulded ribs and shield bosses.

Fittings and Monuments

A Norman bowl font in the tower was cut down around 1550 into a hexagon and mounted on a late Perpendicular moulded plinth. An oak pulpit dated 1629 stands in the nave on a panelled plinth with carving and sounding board. Two lecterns with carved panels are present. An 18th-century manor pew with slender shafts and a dentilled canopy occupies the nave. Early 16th-century pews with rectangular ends carved with rosettes are fixed to a moulded dado rail.

Two early 16th-century carvings in the chancel represent heraldic fragments of the Poyntz crest and the rebus of Abbot Newland of Bristol. Painted panelling appears behind the altar. Two early 17th-century sanctuary chairs in carved oak are present—one in the chancel and one in the chapel. A 17th-century panelled chest sits in the chancel, and some 18th-century panelling above the altar appears in the chapel.

The chancel contains a monument to Lancelot Law dated 1650 with a Latin inscription. A tablet over the south nave door commemorates Sir Francis Fust's restoration of 1759. Further monuments include: a marble monument to Sir John Colt, 1845, with a shield by Daw of Berkeley; a marble monument to Flora Fust, 1841, by Payton of Bristol; a marble monument with fluted pilasters to Elizabeth Hamilton, 1855, by Tyley of Bristol; an elaborate marble monument with urns, a mourning female, a palm tree and a shield to Francis Fust, 1779; a marble monument to Thomas Hobby, 1781, by T. Paty of Bristol; and a marble monument to Sarah Jones, 1812, by Lancaster of Bristol. A ledger stone in the porch dated 1648 bears a worn inscription.