Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael, Kingsteignton

This is a parish church of 15th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in 1865. The structure comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles (each of five bays), a west tower, a south-west porch, and a north-east vestry.

The fabric displays a mix of materials reflecting its construction and restoration history. The west tower and the three westernmost bays of the south aisle are built in local grey limestone rubble. The remainder is red sandstone ashlar, probably of 19th-century date. The porch is snecked local grey limestone. Freestone and granite dressings throughout, with slate roofs.

The surviving medieval work—the west tower and arcades—is Perpendicular of the 15th century. The 1865 restoration saw the external walling and roof substantially renewed.

The chancel features set-back buttresses with set-offs and some white stone dressings. The east window is a 5-light work in 19th-century Perpendicular style with a hoodmould, and a chamfered priest's doorway with rounded arch. The separately-roofed, gabled north-east vestry has a 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular east window with hoodmould; the north side shows evidence of rebuilding and a blocked opening.

The north aisle is red sandstone with three buttresses and a rectangular rood loft stair turret with lean-to stone roof. It contains four 4-light 19th-century Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds; a chamfered doorway with rounded arch in the first bay from the west; and a 3-light 19th-century Perpendicular west window with hoodmould. A brick chimney shaft stands on the north-west corner.

The south aisle shows clear phasing: the two easternmost bays are red sandstone ashlar with some white stones, while the three westernmost bays and the plinth throughout are local grey limestone rubble. Set-back buttresses are present. The 3-light east window and two 4-light eastern windows have 19th-century Perpendicular detailing with heavily cusped tracery; other aisle windows follow more conventional 19th-century Perpendicular forms. Remnants of a door jamb are visible between the first and second bays from the east; a string course appears west of this point.

The south-west porch is of snecked local grey limestone with a coped gable and rounded moulded outer doorway with hoodmould. The inner doorway face carries 19th-century cable moulding of uncertain date, and the roof is 19th-century. A remarkable survival is a circa 16th-century 2-plank studded inner door in a doorway with cranked head; the jambs and arch are richly carved with vine foliage, and the right-hand jamb carving includes a hand.

The west tower is three-staged, battlemented, with corner pinnacles and set-back buttresses. The grey limestone rubble is varied with some blocks of red sandstone. An internal north-west stair turret has slit windows. The west face displays an arched granite west doorway with an unusual moulding profile and an unusual uncusped 4-light granite west window with uncusped head tracery, set in a freestone architrave; this window may be an 18th-century replacement. A chamfered bellringers' opening appears on the east face; 2-light chamfered belfry openings exist on all sides. A clock is mounted on the north face.

The interior preserves 5-bay arcades of Beerstone with rounded arches and piers with corner shafts, dating from the 15th century. There is no chancel arch. The aisle roofs are ceiled waggons without bosses, apparently 19th-century work; the chancel roof is similar but includes bosses. The nave roof is 19th-century unceiled waggon with bosses and a brattished wall plate. A plain rounded tower arch springs from plain imposts, with secondary piers abutting the arch at the east.

The chancel contains a 19th-century crested stone reredos with a central relief-carved cross and local marble shafts flanking it; the reredos extends north and south as panels carved with the symbols of the evangelists above a dado of local marble. A 19th-century aumbry is present; chancel furnishings are 20th-century. A 19th-century pulpit, contemporary with the reredos, is open-fronted with four local marble octagonal shafts with good carved capitals. The font is 15th-century octagonal work, the bowl carved with quatrefoils and the stem with flamboyant blind tracery. Sections of wainscot from the 15th-century rood screen survive with paintings of saints.

The chancel floor includes good ledger stones, among them one commemorating the Reverend Richard Adlam (died 1670) with a remarkable verse addressed to death: "Damn'd tyrant! Cant prophaner blood suffice?/ Must priests that offer be the sacrifice?/ Go tell the Genii that in Hades lie/ They triumph o'er this secret Calvary/ Till some just Nemesis avenge our Cause/and teach this hell-priest to revere good lawes/".

Monuments include a wall monument on the south wall to Richard Carpenter (died 1697) with black marble inscription tablet, white marble pilasters, broken pediment and urn, and armorial bearings. The north wall carries a monument to Christopher Beeke (died 1798) with a marble obelisk, urn in relief, and inscription panel. The south wall of the south aisle has two white marble monuments signed "Nixon and Son" for Samuel Whiteway (died 1837) and Samuel Whiteway (died 1847), and two 17th-century monuments to James Clifford of Ware (died 1685) and Thomas Hele of Babcombe. The north wall displays three gabled Gothic Revival monuments: one to the Reverend Nicholas Watts (died 1849), signed by A. Mather of Great Marlborough Street, London; and a pair flanking the north door commemorating Lucinda Widborne (died 1855) and Charlotte Watts (died 1874).

The east window and east window of the south aisle are by the Hardman Company; the easternmost window on the south side is by Drake of Exeter. Part of the early 16th-century rood screen was removed to the Chantry (formerly the vicarage) circa 1820 and remains there.