Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a Chapel of Ease, originally of the 12th century but substantially altered in the 15th century and again in 1860–61 by the architect Thomas Collins of Tewkesbury. The building is constructed of random limestone rubble with finely dressed quoins, and is roofed in stone slate.

The church comprises a nave and chancel. The nave has a stepped plinth at its west gable end. On the north wall are two matching neo-Norman single-light windows, each with jamb shafts, scalloped capitals and a chevroned arch with hoodmould decorated with cable and diaper work. A 19th-century plank door stands to the right, set within a 12th-century opening featuring paired jamb shafts, scalloped capitals and two orders of chevroned mouldings with a billet-decorated hoodmould. The south wall contains a 19th-century plank door within a 12th-century opening with a plain tympanum and moulded hood. To the right is a two-light square-headed window of around 1490, with trefoil-headed lights and a moulded hood. At the gable end stands a 15th-century three-light window with a triangular head and casement moulded surround; the upper part of the gable was rebuilt in the early 20th century.

The chancel is lit by single-light neo-Norman windows similar to those of the nave in its north and south walls. A neo-Norman two-light window with Early English style foliate capitals to its jamb shafts (one incorporating a carved head) has a hoodmould decorated with diaper and cable mouldings. A string course runs at sill height around the chancel. At the east end of the chancel is a 19th-century hanging for two bells. Both the nave and chancel gable ends are finished with flat coping and upright cross finials. The nave has a flat-chamfered dressed stone eaves cornice.

Interior features include an early 20th-century facetted roof to the nave. Towards the west end are two massive beams with stepped stops, which may once have supported a western gallery. The chancel roof is early 20th-century scissor-braced. The nave has a flagged floor, while the chancel floor is laid in 19th-century coloured tiles with some encaustic tiling in the sanctuary. The 12th-century chancel arch is distorted, with a plain inner arch supported on jamb shafts with scalloped capitals and a chevroned outer arch with moulded hood. A projecting stone corbel stands to the right of the chancel arch, and another projects from the south wall of the chancel as a piscina corbel. The inner edges of the neo-Norman windows in the nave and chancel are worked with keel mouldings, with diaper decoration over the chancel windows and the mullion of the east window.

A possibly 12th-century limestone font with a moulded circular base and octagonal bowl (possibly recut) is positioned towards the west end of the nave. Medieval pews with 19th-century foot and book rests remain towards the rear of the church. The pulpit, pews and choir stalls are otherwise 19th-century. An early 20th-century altar table is present. The monuments include an early 20th-century grey marble monument on the north wall of the nave, an early 20th-century coloured marble monument on the south wall of the nave, and an early 20th-century oval brass monument engraved with a representation of The Lodge.