Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This parish church stands on a steeply banked hillside at Duntisbourne Rouse. The building dates from the late 11th or early 12th century, with a 12th-century chancel and 15th-century west tower. It is constructed of random rubble limestone, including herring-bone work, with an ashlar tower and stone-slate roof.

The church consists of a nave without aisles, a west tower, a south porch, a chancel, and a chapel below the chancel. The nave has a simple triangular-headed south doorway at its centre, with a matching north doorway opposite. The south porch dates from the 18th century and features a chamfered segmental arch with a sundial mounted in the gable above, dated 1756 with a metal gnomon. Stone seats are built into the porch interior.

The south wall of the nave contains a two-light 15th-century window in a square-headed opening to the left of the door, a trefoil-headed lancet to the right, and a further Early English lancet further east. The north wall has no windows and features a central square-headed doorway with chamfered surround and stone step, now blocked; herring-bone work is visible to its right. Parapet gables rise at either end of the nave, with the west gable partly broken by the tower. Both end walls flanking the tower display herring-bone work, and very large dressed quoins mark the south-west corner, with projecting square stone blocks at eaves level at both corners.

The saddleback tower rises in two stages on a chamfered plinth. Small slit windows to an internal staircase appear on the south side at low level and higher on the north side. Very small belfry openings have Tudor-arched heads, with a weathered string course below. Two parapet gables are surmounted by stone crosses above cross-gablet saddles. An inscription stone above the belfry opening in the west face reads: "THIS WAS BUILT BY JOHN HADEN MASON JOHN FREEMAN AND JOHN HOSKINS BEING WARDENS A.D. OI 1587".

The chancel has small round-headed windows on its north, east, and south walls. At lower level, a round-headed east chapel window remains unglazed. An east parapet gable has projecting rectangular stones at eaves level. A square-headed south doorway leads into the low-level chapel via a flight of stone steps, appearing to be a later alteration.

The interior is simply limewashed. Early 18th-century timber panelling lines the nave. A simple pointed arch leads to the tower doorway. The Norman chancel arch features three orders of roll mouldings to its intrados and three colonnettes to the pier jambs, each with a scalloped capital; an additional outer roll moulding appears on the nave side. The three-bay nave roof comprises arched braced collar and moulded tie-beam trusses with windbracing.

The east chancel window has roll moulding. Extensive late Norman wall painting survives on the north wall, with fragments on the east side of the chancel arch piers and south wall. The north wall painting shows round-headed arcading with a scroll band over and stylised masonry with flower decoration above. The chancel roof, 19th-century restored, features collar-tied rafters and ashlaring.

A square-headed aumbry occupies the south chancel wall. A 19th-century quatrefoil pierced timber chancel rail divides the space. Choir stalls with 15th-century misericords, each carved with a grotesque head and vine leaf decoration, are present. A hexagonal Jacobean timber pulpit stands in the nave. A late Norman octagonal stone font rests on an octagonal shaft and square base, carved with trilobed foliage decoration. Eighteenth-century panelled box-pews, many with doors, line the nave.

An early 19th-century memorial on the north wall of the nave by Richard Mills of Cirencester features black and white marble with fluted pilasters flanking an inscription panel. Flaming urns in relief rise above the pilasters with a large funereal urn in the centre and a heraldic shield below. It is inscribed to Nathaniel Haines (died 1784), Ann Haines (died 1814), Susanna Haines (died 1824), Mary Haines (died 1824), and Jane Haines (died 1828). Late 19th- and 20th-century stained glass appears in the chancel.

The tunnel-vaulted chapel below the chancel is accessed by a square-headed doorway at its west end. Blocked stone spiral stairs formerly led from here into the nave. The chapel's east window has roll moulding, and a square-headed aumbry occupies the north wall.