Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church of substantial medieval origins, with 13th-century fabric surviving in the chancel and probably in the nave. The building was remodelled significantly in the 15th century when the tower and north aisle were added. The church was restored around 1889 by Hayward. It is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings and roofed in slate with crested ridge tiles; the chancel end features a coped parapet with an apex cross.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, and north aisle. The unbuttressed west tower rises two stages with an embattled parapet and corner pinnacles. A stair turret projects to the north side, adorned with a large stone gargoyle in the angle of the projection. The tower has single ogee-headed bell openings to each side fitted with louvres, a single straight-headed light window to the north side with a chamfered surround to the top of the first stage, and a semi-circular headed single light window on the south side with louvres. Three undecorated shields appear on the south side. The west face displays a Perpendicular four-light pointed arched window with a label hoodmould above a virtually round-arched doorway with moulded surround and hoodmould with label stops. The door itself is old and weathered plank with elbow struts to the arch and a moulded central rib.

The south elevation of the nave features varied fenestration. To the left of the porch is a window with pointed arch and two ogee lights with quatrefoil tracery and hoodmould. The south porch doorway has an unmoulded pointed arch and above it a cusped-headed niche containing a carved figure. Two old timber benches stand to each side of the porch. The inner porch doorway has a pointed arch with chamfered surround and retains an old five-plank framed and ledged studded door with wrought iron strap hinges and a small wooden shield bearing the initials of a churchwarden and dated 1669. To the right of the porch are two late Perpendicular straight-headed nave south windows, each with three four-centred arched lights with foliated label stops to the hoodmould. A four-centred arched priest's doorway with moulded surround and foliated label stops to the hoodmould follows.

The chancel east end and north aisle each have two Perpendicular pointed arched windows of three lights with hoodmoulds. The north aisle features three straight-headed later Perpendicular windows of three cusped-headed lights with hoodmoulds, and a three-light Perpendicular window at its west end.

Interior

The interior is entered beneath a tall unmoulded semi-circular headed tower arch. The north arcade comprises five continuous bays with Pevsner 'B' type piers and foliated capitals. The second pier from the east end is distinguished by shields to the top of the shafts with mythical beasts and angels to the capitals; the third pier from the east end has human heads flanking shields. Unceiled 15th-century waggon roofs extend throughout the building, though much of the nave roof timber has been renewed. The chancel roof has a moulded ridge member. The north aisle roof has every fourth rib moulded with variously carved bosses at the intersections and a richly carved wall plate. Carved lintels, possibly reused sections of wall plates, appear to nave windows and to wide niches behind the pulpit.

The chancel contains a horn-shaped piscina and the north aisle an ogee-headed piscina. A 19th-century tiled altar step incorporates a considerable number of 17th-century Barnstaple tiles to the chancel and east end of the north aisle. A 17th-century communion rail with thick turned balusters and moulded handrail occupies the chancel chapel.

The pulpit is polygonal with semi-circular headed blind panels, dated 1635 with initials HF, HB, and CM inside the lozenges of the frieze. Reused dado panels, two panels high, line the front pew on the south side. The north side of the nave retains a set of five early 16th-century carved bench ends with moulded top rails. The front bench functions also as a coffer with two iron locks and eight foliated panels. Low pews in the north aisle, dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, have undecorated bench ends with moulded surrounds; the third bench from the east end has part of what is probably a reused carved wall plate as its book rail.

A square Norman font with a scalloped base on a round stem retains a marble bowl. A demi-bell-wheel dated 1664 hangs on the north aisle north wall, with an old clapper on the west wall. A 17th-century carved table in the north aisle has three panels to the front with old locks. The north aisle contains several late 16th and early 17th-century stone and slate memorial stones, including two to the Pollard family and two with incised crosses.

A mid-15th-century recumbent effigy depicts a lady with a horned headdress and small figures of children under her cloak. An early 17th-century wall monument to Arthur Pollard and his wife occupies the splay of a north aisle window, with a shield above a strapwork frieze supported on fluted columns. A slate tablet on the north chancel wall commemorates Robert Brian, died 1634.

The tracery of the north aisle east window retains 15th-century stained glass. Nineteenth-century stained glass appears in the west window (1889, to the Downing family) and in the chancel south window by Mayer and Company (to Richard Dene, died 1863). Two of the north aisle windows contain glass by A L Moore.