Church of St Michael and All Angels, including a lamp standard and the churchyard walling, railings, gates and gate piers

Church of St Michael and All Angels, including a lamp standard and the churchyard walling, railings, gates and gate piers

Parish church, built 1885-6 by W.S. Barber for Dr and Mrs Williams of Moor Park, Beckwithshaw. Stone carving by W. Pashley of Leeds. Stained glass by both C.E. Kempe and C.E. Tute. The building is designed in broadly early 14th-century Middle-Pointed Gothic style.

The church is constructed of local Killinghall sandstone, squared and laid to courses, with a slate roof laid to diminishing courses. The plan comprises an aisle-less nave of three bays, a two-bay chancel flanked by an organ chamber to the north and vestry to the south. The nave has no west door but is accessed via a porch in the base of the tower, which projects south from the western-most bay.

The windows generally feature flowing tracery with hood-moulds terminated by stops in the form of medieval-style carved heads, each being different. The walls have a projecting string course at window sill level with a simple plinth below. Roof verges are finished with plain coping, with stone cross finials to the east and west gables.

At the west end, a pair of two-light traceried windows flank a carving of St Michael slaying the dragon, which forms the central stop to the hood-mould, with a male and female head as flanking stops. The nave side windows are two-light windows with flowing tracery, the central window on the north wall having Y-tracery. The chancel's east window is of three lights with flame-like, later 14th-century-style tracery. The eastern bay has single-light traceried side-windows, the south window being internal to the extended vestry. The vestry to the south has a cat-slide roof and is lit by trefoil-headed lancet windows (two pairs and a triple) without hood-moulds, together with a plain pointed-arched doorway also without a hood-mould. It is now of two bays, the eastern bay being a later addition. The organ chamber to the north is gabled and is lit by a pair of trefoil-headed lancets beneath a single arched hood-mould with stops. A tall boiler chimney rises from the junction of its ridgeline and the chancel roof.

The tower is of three diminishing stages delineated by string courses, the lowest stage being higher than the eaves line of the nave. It is supported by angle buttresses and has a stair turret projecting as a canted bay from the east side of the lowest stage. At the base of the tower's south side is the church doorway, featuring oak double doors with rib-work in the form of Reticulated tracery. The second stage, the ringing chamber, is lit by tall narrow lancet windows to each face. The top stage, the bell chamber, has on each side two pairs of tall trefoil-headed lancets fitted with louvres. Above are gargoyle waterspouts at each corner of the tower, with a crenulated parapet.

The interior walls are unplastered stone ashlar, with carved embellishment reserved for the chancel. The roof comprises exposed trusses with scissor and arched braces with high collars. The chancel and the east end of the nave have polychrome tiled floors. The east end features an ornate carved reredos in the form of a triptych showing the crucifixion and resurrection, possibly of carved artificial stone rather than natural freestone. Other carved decoration includes individually carved heads, angels and beasts forming stops to hood moulds, and brattished wall plates in the chancel roof structure.

Fittings include ornately carved oak choir stalls, a carved stone or artificial stone pulpit and font, oak pews, and brass altar and other rails. The church retains much of its smaller fixtures and fittings such as ornate door furniture of good quality. Memorial plaques include a bronze First World War memorial. The tower retains a peal of six bells by Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel.

All stained glass is of late Gothic Revival style featuring figurative or pictorial designs. The east and west windows date to the opening of the church and are attributed to Kempe. The stained glass in the north and south windows generally dates to 1892 and is attributed to Tute.

The churchyard is completely enclosed with iron railings on carved stone ashlar gate piers and contains a decorative Gothic cast-iron lamp-stand on an octagonal stone base.