Church Of St Michael And All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Anglican parish church situated in Loddiswell village centre, dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The building is constructed of slatestone with granite dressings and slate roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, north transept, south aisle incorporating a porch, and chancel with south aisle chapel.

The west tower is square and two-staged. The lower level has diagonal buttresses, above which sits a plain square stage carrying battlements set forward on a corbel table. The north face has a heavy square stair turret rising to two-thirds height with a pent roof. The west front features a 19th-century plank door in a pointed arch beneath an unusual 3-light window with a supertransom carrying three stepped lights, all with arch and drip mould under voussoirs. Louvred openings to shouldered lintels appear on each face of the bell stage. To the right of the tower is a plain wall to a coped gable.

The south front displays a 2-light Y-tracery window in wood above a doorway in basket-handle arch under a square stepped drip course, with plinths to the jambs bearing worn sunk panels. The porch has a slate floor and granite surround to the door to the aisle, with an open barrel roof. Remains of stocks are visible.

The south aisle contains four 3-light windows of late 14th-century date with slightly pointed heads under drip moulds. The outer lights have segmental heads, mullions pass through the full height without cusping, and all are set back in the jambs. Three buttresses with double offset rest on a continuous seat-like plinth, with a diagonal buttress to the east. The chancel chapel features a 4-light window with good Perpendicular tracery, a priest's door with a flat 4-centre arch cut from a single stone, and a small 2-light Perpendicular window. No buttress exists at the corner.

The east end has three coped gables with crosses. A small 3-light Perpendicular window serves the chapel, a large 5-light 19th-century window serves the chancel, and a narrow 3-light with very worn cusping serves the north. The east wall is set down well below churchyard level, as is much of the north side. The north side features a length of plain wall and a blocked 3-light Perpendicular window with glass to the tracery lights only.

The north transept has a plain east wall and coped gable with cross. Above this rises a 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular window on the north wall, with bituminised plinth to approximately 1.5 metres height. The west wall has a 3-light window. The north side of the nave has a central 3-light Perpendicular window flanked by simpler 3-light windows, all with drip courses. Windows generally have relieving arches in deep voussoirs to neat extrados.

Interior: The tower contains a 17th-century ringers' door in a shouldered arch and a deep-set west door forming a square opening glazed in on two steps to a slate floor. The nave, on a slate and tile floor with a 19th-century barrel roof, has a 4-bay arcade with 4 hollows and shafts to granite piers. The south aisle, on slate and tile with a 19th-century barrel roof, has doors at the west end to the porch and priest's room. The chancel is raised on two steps plus two at the altar, with a double chamfer chancel arch including an opening in the respond for a road. The tile floor is flanked by wide arches; that to the south sits on octagonal piers with flared capitals and double chamfer arch. A squint opens from the south aisle. A piscina and small arch occupy one wall, possibly indicating sedilia, though these appear unusually small for such a feature. The south aisle opens through a double chamfer arch onto slate and tile flooring, beneath a 19th-century barrel roof. The north chapel, very narrow and containing an organ, is accessible through a blocked arch to the north chancel chapel.

The north transept sits on a wood floor beneath a 19th-century barrel roof.

Fittings and monuments include a Norman round bowl font of red sandstone on a good round base, deeply embellished with scrolled and chevron ornament. A good carved and painted 19th-century panel reredos, vigorous 1867 marble pulpit, and eagle lectern are present. Late 19th-century pitch-pine pews line the nave. The north transept contains many marble commemorative tablets to members of the Wise family, local benefactors, and a large upright incised slate slab of 1616 to Edward Furlong. The south chapel holds two good marble and slate wall tablets: one to Katherine Langworthy (1659) with very shallow incised lettering on a damaged marble surround beneath a steep pediment, and another in Latin to another Langworthy (1634). Both retain some applied colour. A bible of 1583 is displayed in a case. Royal Arms of George III hang above the entrance.