Church Of St Michael And Grave Cover Leaning On Buttress Beside North Door

The Church of St Michael consists of a medieval church with a grave cover, dating from the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was restored in 1867-9 by Sir Gilbert Scott. The church is constructed of rubble, with an artificial stone slate roof.

The west tower is from the 13th century, featuring four stages with a 19th-century two-light west window, a pointed second-stage light vent, a south-east stair turret with light vents, a chamfered northern third-stage light vent, two-light belfry openings, and a corbelled parapet. The 19th-century gabled single-storey porch on the left side has an Early English-style doorway and an inner doorway with two chamfered orders, the outer being shafted with a label bearing head stops. The aisles have stepped buttresses, and 19th-century windows of two pointed lights with separate quatrefoils above. The north aisle features a stepped corner buttress, windows of paired lancets, two two-light windows with trefoils above, a buttress, and a late 14th-century grave cover propped vertically between the north doorway and buttress. This grave cover, likely belonging to a member of the Musard family (hereditary constables of Richmond Castle), is of coped section, forming a ridged cross, and bears a shield emblazoned with the family arms – gules, two bars gemelles and a chief or. A double-chamfered pointed-arch doorway and a lancet window are also present on the north aisle. The chancel features a lancet window above a blocked single-light window, a blocked priest's door, two lancets, a stepped buttress, and three stepped lancets under a continuous hood-moulding to the east end, along with two lancets to the north.

Inside, the early 12th-century north arcade comprises six bays of two unchamfered orders, with cushion capitals and circular pillars, except for the central octagonal one. The late 13th to early 14th-century south arcade has four bays, with simply-moulded capitals, except for richly-carved oak leaves on the easternmost one, and large heads between bays. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders, the inner one on shafted responds. A late 13th to early 14th-century tomb recess with a triangular canopy, cusped and with worn crockets, is found in the south wall of the nave aisle, along with a coffin lid with an ornate foliate cross and foliage. A trefoiled piscina is also present. A monument is located on the south wall of the chancel, dedicated to Rev John Mawer DD, who died in 1763. Further features include three hatchments, a piece of Saxon cross-head, a 15th-century alms box with three wrought-iron clasps, and a late 17th to early 18th-century communion table.