Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church with a 14th-century chancel and possibly tower, while the nave and aisles were rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century. The church was restored in 1887, 1893, 1895, and 1898. It is constructed of local shale rubble with granite and some red sandstone dressings, and has a slate roof.

The church comprises a nave, narrower chancel, six-bay north aisle and four-bay south aisle with a porch at the west end, a west tower, and a vestry at the east end of the north aisle. The altar in the 14th-century chancel was dedicated in 1333 by Bishop Grandisson. Much of the original 14th-century work was lost when the nave and aisles were rebuilt, although a circa 14th-century south doorway may remain in situ. The south porch is of uncertain date. A vestry was added to the north side of the chancel, probably in the 19th century. In 1766 the church was reseated. The 1887 restoration involved repairing the roofs, reflooring, and reseating at a cost of £700. The chancel and vestry were restored in 1893 with the chancel roof renewed. In 1898, most windows were replaced.

Exterior features include the four-bay south aisle with four large Perpendicular-style four-centred arch windows with original hoodmoulds but renewed tracery. Between the windows is a slate sundial dated 1736. There is a blocked window at the east end of the south aisle and a gabled porch at the west end, with a dressed slate two-centred arch, late 19th or 20th-century gates, and a circa 14th-century two-centred arch inner doorway with ovolo and cavetto mouldings and an 18th-century fielded panel door. The porch roof has been replaced. To the left of the porch is a three-light nave window with replaced Perpendicular-style tracery.

The six-bay north aisle has six Perpendicular granite windows with four-centred arches and hoodmoulds, with buttresses between the windows featuring concrete weathering to the set-offs. Between the two easternmost windows is a rectangular-plan rood stair turret with a slate roof. Both east and west end windows of the north aisle have been blocked. The chancel has a late 19th or early 20th-century Perpendicular-style three-light east window and two smaller three-light Perpendicular-style south windows. The priests' doorway on the south side has cavetto and rounded moulding with a two-centred arch. Early north windows have been blocked by the later 19th-century vestry, which has a doorway and window on its east gable end.

The tall west tower is in two stages with a string course, an embattled parapet on a corbel table, and diagonal buttresses. A polygonal stair turret on the south side has a corbelled parapet with missing battlements. Two-light bell-openings have traceried two-centred arches on the east and north faces; the west opening and the three-light west window below have their traceried windows replaced by a circa 17th-century granite mullion flat-headed window with a hoodmould. The west doorway has an almost round arch in slate with its original moulded frame probably removed; the west door is 20th-century.

Interior walls are plastered and limewashed, with slate paving throughout. The nave and aisles have 15th or early 16th-century wagon roofs with moulded ribs, though the plaster panels have been removed. The chancel has a late 19th-century wagon roof. Both north and south arcades feature B-type piers with shafts at the corner and wave moulding between, carved foliage capitals, moulded two-centred arches, and cavetto-moulded window rear arches. One capital on the north side bears the arms of Torre Abbey, while one on the south side displays the arms of the See of Exeter. The north arcade has six bays and the south arcade four bays. The tower arch is blocked. A doorway to the tower stair has a chamfered round arch. A two-centred arch rood stair doorway is rebated for a door, now missing.

The chancel is narrower with an oddly adapted chancel arch. It contains a good 14th-century triple sedilia on the south side with an integral double piscina, featuring cusped arches and hoodmoulds. The double piscina has corbelled basins and quatrefoil tracery with a hoodmould. The north side of the chancel has two blocked lancets and a moulded two-centred arch doorway now giving access to the vestry.

The rood screen spans the nave and south aisle only and has been heavily restored, with the loft and canopy missing in the south aisle. Some original blue and red colour survives, and the wainscot panels are painted with Renaissance designs featuring grotesque heads, animals, and shields displaying emblems of the Crucifixion. Two panels bear the initials "K" and "HVIII" for Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. The south aisle has an 18th-century fielded panel dado probably dating from the 1766 reseating, and the north aisle has some 19th-century dado panelling. The church contains 19th-century softwood benches and choir stalls.

A low gallery at the west end has an 18th-century (probably 1766) panelled front with painted graining. An octagonal carved wood pulpit with blank arcaded panels, strapwork frieze, and guilloche band appears Jacobean in style, though some authorities date it to the 16th century and note it was originally set on the roof loft. A good Norman font in red sandstone has a round bowl with a frieze of palmettos with cable-moulding above and zigzag below, a circular item, and moulded base. Royal Arms of Charles II dated 1680 with flanking texts hang in the south aisle. A hatchment is present in the north aisle. A simple late 19th-century organ by Sims of Ryde (Isle of Wight) was provided in 1900 and set on a platform made from a parclose screen. Six bells are present, five of which were cast in 1782.

The church contains fine brasses to Nicholas Ford (died 1583) and Margaret his wife (died 1588) on a ledger stone at the centre of the nave. A slate on the north wall of the chancel dated 1669 commemorates Grace Stuer. A late 17th or early 18th-century wall monument in moulded frame with cornice stands in the south aisle, as does another to William Roche (died 1754). Also in the south aisle is a tomb chest to Richard Sparke (died 1700) with wrought iron railings. Cholwiche family memorials are present, the oldest being a floor stone to Richard Cholwich (died 1646).