Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a parish church of substantial size and historical complexity, with fabric dating from the 13th to 17th centuries, substantially restored in 1885 by F.S. Waller.

The building comprises a nave and aisles, a chancel set back on the south side, a north porch, and a prominent four-stage west tower. Materials vary across the building: ashlar to the main structure, random rubble to the upper part of the north aisle, coursed squared stone to the south aisle, and approaches to ashlar on the porch. Roofs are lead-covered except for the porch and chancel, which are stone slate.

The four-stage west tower dominates the north entrance facade. It features a moulded plinth, moulded strings at each stage, and angled buttresses to the west. The bottom two stages have trefoil and ogee-headed lancet windows; the third stage carries a two-light window with reticulated tracery, its lights filled with boards with slits in the upper half; the top stage has a three-light window with a flat head and wooden louvres. A crenellated parapet with corner gargoyles crowns the tower.

The north aisle is three bays long, with a plinth, angled buttress to the west, and a square set buttress to the east. Each end has a two-light mullioned window with ogee-heads to the lights and flat heads to the windows overall, with parapet gables. A central north porch projects from the aisle. It has a plinth and angled buttresses, a double-boarded door with corner fillets and a simply-chamfered doorway with hoodmould, and above it a hooded recess. Parapet gables front and back feature cross-gablet apices, with a cross on the rear gable over the aisle roof.

The clerestory above the nave has three two-light windows as in the aisle, parapet gables, and a bellcote on the eastern one. A single lancet lights the return of the left aisle. Lines of earlier nave and chancel roofs are visible on the gable.

The chancel is set back on the left (south) side, with a plinth and two-light Perpendicular window with hoodmould. A boarded door opens to a steeply arched opening with carved spandrels and a flat hoodmould. To the left is a two-light mullioned window with flat head and hoodmould. The parapet gable has a cross-gablet apex and cross. The east end of the chancel has no plinth and shows a break in stonework up the right corner. A plain string course at eaves level is interrupted by a three-light ovolo-moulded mullion and transom window with hoodmould. Above this sits a datestone.

The south side presents further 13th-century work. The chancel has two two-light Perpendicular tracery windows with hoodmoulds, one partly replacing a blocked doorway, and an adjacent buttress to the right window. The south aisle has two-light flat-headed windows with ogee and trefoiled heads to the lights at each end, and a three-light similar window in the centre, probably replacing a doorway, with a small buttress at the west end. The clerestory above mirrors that on the north side.

The tower on the south facade mirrors the north facade but has only the head of the bottom window remaining and a boarded door with a light above below. The west elevation shows further variety. On the right, the south aisle has a boarded door with double ogee moulding and a four-centred arch with a two-stone head, and above it a half semi-circular-headed window. To the left, the lowest string of the tower is matched on the projecting main gable in different form, with a quatrefoil window over and stone offsets above. The tower face matches the north, with a plain bottom stage but a blocked doorway. To the left, the nave end matches the right, with a lancet to the aisle.

The interior presents rich medieval and post-medieval detail. The porch has stone bench seats each side and an arched-braced collar rafter roof with no ridge member.

The main church has unplastered walls with Minton-tile floors in the walkways and medieval tiles in the south aisle. The nave arcade comprises three bays on each side. The south side has four-lobed columns with simply moulded capitals and bases; the north side has two bays similar, with a plain west bay with no responds. An outline of the lower nave roof is visible at each end. A holy water stoup stands by the north door, with a set of quoins to the west in the north wall. The upper part of stairs to the rood screen is visible in the south aisle.

The nave roof is a four-bay structure with low-pitch tie-beam trusses, carved bosses under stump king-posts, and quatrefoil infill to each truss. One pair of purlins and a square set ridge all carry painted medieval decoration. The aisle roofs are lean-to structures with moulded purlins and principal rafters and chamfered rafters.

The chancel roof has collar rafters with slight braces, at one time plastered.

The north aisle contains a bench seat along the west wall, with a panelled back and fluted frieze dated 1615, and a panelled screen to the east with a turned baluster top. A trefoil-headed piscina is present. The south aisle has a slightly later similar seat with a panelled back rising to canopies with corner pendants between windows and a fluted frieze.

The chancel features fielded panelling to the walls with a bench seat below, surviving outside the communion enclosure, with shaped arms to the ends. Seventeenth-century communion rails with spiral turned balusters are present, along with a carved wooden reredos commemorating C.B. Scott, ob. 1917.

The pews are partly 16th-century, with moulded top rail and blind tracery to the ends. A multi-sided wooden pulpit with fielded panels and a 17th-century reading desk with fielded panels and spiral balusters to an open top are notable features. At the west end is a gallery on four Roman Doric pillars, with a fielded-panel front breaking forward in the centre. Original tiered seats occupy each side of the organ, and two brass 19th-century candle holders are mounted. Stairs from the north side feature a moulded string and rail with turned balusters.

A benefactions board and a Decalogue board flank the gallery.

A 15th-century octagonal stone font with a quatrefoil to the side bowl, blind tracery stem, and lead lining stands in the church.

Medieval glass is preserved in the top east and south-east chancel windows. Other glass is greenish and possibly largely 17th-century in date.

Various early 18th-century and 19th-century marble wall monuments adorn the walls, with the monument to James Thynne, ob. 1709, being of particular quality.

A 15th-century cope survives in a case in the north aisle.