Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a parish church, originally built in 1836 by T. Lidstone as a chapel of ease for Blackawton. It became the parish church in 1881 when Strete was formed into an independent parish. The church is constructed of rendered local slate rubble with a Welsh slate roof.

The church is of Perpendicular Gothic style. The plan comprises a nave and aisles under a single roof, a small sanctuary with a lean-to vestry in the north-east angle, and a west tower. The exterior features shallow buttresses with weathered set-offs; the corner buttresses are diagonally set. There are four tall, two-light windows with central arches, wooden perpendicular tracery, and leaded panes on both the north and south sides. The easternmost window on the north side contains stained glass, while the easternmost south window has been blocked. Similar windows are located at the west end of both aisles. The gable-ended sanctuary has a moulded four-centred arch window with three lights and perpendicular tracery. The vestry has two single-light windows with ogee tracery on the east side, and a two-centred arch doorway with a 19th-century door with studded covermoulds on the north side. The west tower has four stages with string courses, diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles, and lancet bell openings with slate louvres. The west front features a two-light, two-centred arch window with perpendicular tracery above a large two-centred arch doorway with deep roll mouldings, a hoodmould, and 20th-century studded double doors, and a slate sundial with a tripartite pointed arch head on the south-west buttress.

The interior is complete and of Perpendicular Gothic style, featuring four-bay timber arcades with piers containing four shafts and moulded capitals with moulded four-centred arches. The roof features principals on corbelled wall posts and pierced arch braces, which are also present on the chancel arch. The walls are plastered. The furnishings are complete, including benches and choir stalls with trefoiled and cusped ends and fronts with cusped panels. Original features include the lecturn, reading desk, communion rail, and carved wooden reredos, although the altar appears to be later. A carved wooden octagonal pulpit is dated 1887. Other features include an octagonal Perpendicular font, and painted texts on metal plates at the east ends of the aisles. Stained glass is present in the east window (circa 1860-70) and the easternmost window of the north aisle (a late 19th-century memorial to Matilda Bonsall).