Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is an Anglican parish church with Norman origins, largely medieval in character, and substantially remodelled in the 1845 by T.H. Wyatt. It is constructed of ashlar with a Welsh slate roof featuring coped verges and saddlestones. The church’s plan incorporates a west tower, a five-bay nave with aisles, a chancel with a south-side chapel, and a north porch.

The four-stage west tower, originally located at the crossing, was moved in 1845 and features corner buttresses. It has a Perpendicular-arched door with carved terminals, a lancet window on the third stage, and a two-light window with louvres on the fourth stage, set within cusped Perpendicular arcading. String courses delineate the third and fourth stages, and the top is battlemented. The Lady Chapel to the south-east has three four-light Perpendicular windows with hood moulds, a square-headed door with a moulded plinth, and a battlemented parapet with pinnacles. The chancel has corner buttresses, one incorporating a medieval sundial, and two- and three-light Perpendicular windows with hood moulds. A gabled 19th-century vestry adjoins the north aisle, with a three-light Perpendicular window and a four-light square-headed window. The north porch is two-storied, featuring a moulded Perpendicular arch and a two-light trefoil-headed window on the upper floor, with a statue of St Michael in a niche above the door. A polygonal stair turret is situated in the angle of the tower.

Inside the porch, a tierceron star vault features bosses. The five-bay nave has a 13th-century pointed arcade supported by cylindrical piers. Late 19th-century pews and a pointed arch define the entrance to the tower. The 15th-century Lady Chapel was refitted in 1909. The chancel contains a pointed arch, a wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling, and evidence of removed blind arcading and a piscina on the walls. Four-centred arches were inserted in 1845, leading to the Lady Chapel and vestry. Notable fittings include a carved limestone reredos of 1894 by Ponting, a carved oak chancel screen (also 1894), choir stalls from 1881, and a pulpit from 1906. There is stained glass from 1884 by Ward and Hughes, and from 1897 in the Lady Chapel by Kempe. Historic memorial tablets are present, including an early marble tablet from 1612 dedicated to Ambrose Dauntesey, a signed tablet from 1730 by Hoare to Jacob Selfe, and a signed tablet from 1720 by Richard Broad of Box to Thomas Smith. Three 18th-century cartouches are set into the exterior north-east corners of the chancel and nave.