Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Loxhore

Parish church with possibly 13th-century fabric to the nave and chancel. The north aisle and west tower date from the 15th or 16th century. The building was reported as having been almost entirely rebuilt in 1844 and was further restored in 1882 by Dolby of Abingdon. The structure is built of rubble stone, roughly coursed on the south side of the chancel, with ashlar dressings. The roofs are slate with moulded clay ridge tiles to the chancel. Apex crosses crown the south porch and chancel.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north aisle and south porch. The three-stage tower features an embattled parapet and single buttresses set diagonally at the western corners and square-set at the eastern angles on the south and north faces. Two four-centred arched light bell openings with louvres are set on each side. A single slit opening appears on the east side of the second stage above the weathering line of the original nave roof. A damaged slate sundial is mounted on the south side.

The 19th-century west window is in Perpendicular style with three lights, a pointed arch and a hoodmould continued round as a first-stage string. A segmental arched west doorway with chamfered surround and pyramid stops leads into the tower, with a 19th-century plank door. Two 19th-century windows on the south side of the nave have two cusped-headed lights with mouchette tracery and pointed arched hoodmoulds with label stops. The south porch has a raised coped parapet and a Perpendicular four-centred arched doorway with moulded surround. A semi-circular arched 18th-century doorcase with moulded surround holds a round-headed six-panelled door with its original lock.

The south side of the chancel has two single-light lancets and a two-light window with label stops to the hoodmoulds. A tall two-light transomed east window with quatrefoil tracery and steeply pointed labelled hoodmould dominates the chancel. A weathered oval stone tablet is mounted on the north chancel wall. A three-light 19th-century Perpendicular style east window faces north, with six and two similar two-light windows along the north side.

Interior

The tower arch is unmoulded and pointed. The arcade to the north aisle comprises three bays with an unusual feature: octagonal piers of timber with sunk chamfers and ogee mouldings to the alternate faces. Scroll stops decorate the square capitals and the base of the piers, where some original timber survives; the rest is largely 19th-century timber. Octagonal stone plinths support the arcade, with a straight unmoulded entablature above.

The north aisle has a Perpendicular waggon roof (ceiled in the 19th or 20th century) with moulded ribs and carved bosses at the intersections. A slightly pointed 19th-century waggon roof covers the nave with moulded ribs and carved foliated wall plates. The chancel roof is small with foliated bosses and tapers to a flat arch. The chancel and nave are spanned by a crenellated tie-beam truss supported on wall posts from which carved angel figures lean outwards. Pierced tracery designs ornament the soffits of the principals. A large carved cross serves as the hinge post. A further crenellated tie-beam spans above the altar rails with a crown post.

The east window contains stained glass. Wide double sedilia with a central marble colonette support twin pointed arches. A late 19th-century chancel screen features a central archway with foliated spandrels and five trefoil-headed lights to each side with turned balusters.

The 19th-century pulpit is a polygonal timber drum on a stone stem with double ogee arches separated by squat colonettes on each facet. The chancel floor is decorated with 19th-century fleur-de-lis tiles, and nine medieval Barnstaple tiles have been newly set into the base of the pulpit.

The font has a square bowl and cylindrical stem without decoration, but is crowned with a 16th-century cone cover four-sided in plan with a cable-moulded centre and corner ribs swept up to a crocketted finial.

Painted Royal Arms hang on the west wall of the north aisle. Two slate floor stones in the north aisle commemorate the Norwood family (1614) and Susan Rogers (1711).

Monuments

The north chancel wall holds an unusual metal plaque in a wooden frame engraved to Richard Carpenter, rector, who died in 1627, with verses in different lettering styles. A similar metal plaque on the east wall of the north aisle commemorates Mary Weber, wife of the rector, who died in 1671. It features an incised Corinthian classical pillar dividing etched verses, with an engraved canopy and skull and cross bones above.

The north wall of the north aisle, from the east end, displays a 17th-century wall monument to the Hammond family, including Hester, described as "famous for her skill in geneology but died childless". A broken pediment flanks a classical urn with putti reclining on each raking cornice, supported on a Tuscan column. An angel's bust appears below, with scrolled wing brackets flanking a slate plaque. A marble tablet records the restoration of the reredos in 1911 by T. E. Ching of Porthleven.

A large monument to the Hammond family features a classical urn with two large putti to each side and classical torches outside. Corinthian pilasters flank columns of the same order outside an oval medallion with richly carved surround. Cherub heads and drops ornament the upper section, with skulls in the base and to each side of consoles with scalloped bases. A winged plaque between them bears no inscription.

A stone tablet on the south wall of the chancel commemorates Reverend Charles Reave, who died in 1726. The square plaque has a classical porch and scrolling wing brackets with a base.