Church Of St Michael

A small parish church with Norman origins, though the present building is entirely 15th century, with a major rebuild dated 1451 and thorough renovation in the late 19th century. The church stands on Draydown Hill.

The tower and north aisle are constructed of massive blocks of coursed granite ashlar. The nave and chancel are mostly rebuilt in the 19th century using local stone rubble with granite ashlar quoins and granite ashlar detail. The roof is slate. The plan comprises a nave with a slightly narrower and lower chancel set on a marginally different axis. A north aisle with an east end chapel extends nearly the full length of the church. The west tower has an internal staircase in its north-west corner, and there is a south porch.

The exterior features a tall, landmark west tower of three stages with set-back buttresses and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The tower has two-light belfry windows and on its west side a round-headed doorway with moulded surround and a window above, now missing its two mullions and tracery. The south side of the nave has a small gabled porch, probably 19th century, with a plain outer arch towards the left end. To the right is a single square-headed four-light window with round-headed lights, sunken spandrels and hoodmould, which is a 19th-century replacement. The chancel has two original similar two-light windows with cusped heads, and a much-restored three-light window at the east end. A priests' doorway in the south side is a tiny two-centred arch. The north aisle has three similar much-restored windows and another with a pointed head displaying Perpendicular tracery at the east end. It has corner diagonal buttresses, and the break between the aisle and chapel is marked by a semi-hexagonal rood stair turret. A straight join suggests the chapel is an addition, probably from 1451.

The interior south doorway, probably 19th century, is a chamfered segmental-headed arch but contains an ancient studded plank door with original ferramenta and oak lock housing. The finest features are the roofs, all 15th century. The nave has a ceiled wagon roof with moulded purlins and ribs, carved oak bosses and a moulded wall plate enriched with four-leaf motifs. The aisle has a similar ceiled wagon roof except the wall plates are carved with fruiting vines. The chancel wagon roof is now open, with ribs and purlins hollow-chamfered and enriched with four-leaf motifs. The large oak bosses are naively but charmingly carved, featuring tinners' hares, the green man and sacred monograms. The wall plate is similarly carved with foliage and vines.

The remarkable feature of the chancel roof is Latin quotations carved on the ribs and purlins. These record the names of Henry Le Maygne, vicar, described as "a native of Normandy who caused me to be built AD 1451" and "wrote this with own hand", and Robert of Rouen of Becedden, Prior of Cowick near Exeter, and Richard Talbot, Lord of Spreyton, who "gave their goods to my building".

A tall plain tower arch leads to the chancel. Apart from the change in roof levels, there is no break between nave and chancel. The rood stair in the north aisle is intact with plain granite doorways. A five-bay arcade of monolithic granite piers, moulded in Pevsner's type A with plain caps to the arcade only, divides the spaces. The fourth arch from nave to chancel is much narrower than the rest and its arch is lop-sided. The fifth arch is wider and lower than the rest, either built this way to accommodate the lower chancel roof or representing two phases of construction.

The walls are plastered, and the nave and chancel include some 18th or early 19th-century fielded-panel wainscotting. Many window embrasures have oak lintels. The floor comprises mostly stone flags, the earliest of which are small and square in size similar to encaustic tiles, and some probably 15th or 16th-century tiles are included amongst them. The floor also includes some grave slabs, mostly 17th and 18th century, though a couple in the north aisle may be medieval. A 15th-century piscina sits in the sanctuary. The altar consists of an enormous slab of granite ashlar of indeterminate date resting on a 20th-century oak table. The altar rail, stalls and low chancel screen incorporating the pulpit are built of oak in Gothic style. A plain pine lectern and oak prayer desk complete the furnishings. The benches are oak in 16th-century style with carved wreathed foliage around the bench ends. A Gothic style tower screen stands at the back of the nave. All this furniture dates from the late 19th or early 20th century. The remains of a richly carved oak doorway from the former rood screen, featuring delicate Perpendicular tracery, are preserved at the back of the church.

A good late Norman granite font has an octagonal bowl with simple geometric patterns carved on each side and an octagonal stem, each side carved with crude but recognisable representations such as the Tree of Life, Mortality and Our Lady crowned. An apparently earlier crudely-finished circular font bowl sits in the north aisle.

The mural monuments are 18th and 19th century. The best, dated 1763 in memory of Thomas Hoare (died 1746) and his wife Agnes (died 1763), is in the chancel. Another fine example in the north aisle commemorates John Cam of Fuidge (died 1767). Painted royal arms of George III appear on a board in the north aisle, and a painted charity board dated 1825 hangs over the south doorway. The east window contains 19th-century glass.