Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is an Anglican parish church with origins dating back to the 13th century, undergoing significant remodelling in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, commissioned by Ingham Baker, then Lord of the Manor. The church is constructed of local stone with roughcast rendering, with dressings of Ham stone ashlar. It has Welsh slate roofs behind stepped, coped gables, with a plain parapet featuring moulded coping on the north side. A timber-clad west bell turret, sheathed in cedar shingles, sits against the west front.

The church follows a three-cell plan, comprising a single-bay chancel, a three-bay nave, and a north aisle. A north-east corner vestry and a south porch also feature. The chancel has a plinth and slim corner pilasters; its east window is a 3-light 'Y'-tracery window with a pointed-arched label dating back to the 18th century. A single lancet window is situated in the south wall. The vestry has a single lancet window in the east wall, possibly a reused element. The north aisle has three single lancets, a segmental-arched doorway in the north wall, and a lancet window to the west. The nave has a single lancet towards the west end of the south wall, and a 2-light, chamfer-mullioned window set within a chamfered recess. A matching 2-light window, positioned high under the eaves towards the west end, was likely intended for a gallery and is now blocked. The west gable contains a pair of lancet windows.

The south porch, added in the 18th century, has a plain, coped gable with a stone-tiled roof and a finial. It incorporates a chamfered triangular arched outer doorway and bench seating. The inner doorway is moulded and segmental-pointed.

Inside, the chancel and nave have 18th-century boarded roofs with double-collar trusses. The chancel is simple, with no archway into the nave. A partly-restored 14th-century double piscina is located in the south wall, and the adjacent lancet has a trefoil rere-arch – a feature also present in the lancet on the south wall of the nave. The nave is separated from the north aisle by a timber arcade composed of square-section posts with slightly-arched braces to the wall-plate beam; the aisle ceiling is boarded and leans against the main structure. Historic fittings include fragments of 17th and 18th-century timber panelling in the chancel, an 18th-century altar table, early 19th-century nave box pews, and a small, probably 18th-century, hexagonal pulpit in the north aisle. An octagonal font of uncertain date, perhaps 14th century, is also present, along with boards displaying the Creed and Lord's Prayer, dated 1795, and a Georgian hatchment on the north wall. Marble wall tablets commemorate Azariah Pinney (died 1760), John Frederick Pinney (died 1762), and Elizabeth Pinney (died 1812), former owners of the manor house, situated in the chancel and on the nave’s south wall. Two 18th-century bells are housed in the turret. The chancel collapsed in 1846, and the east wall and vestry were damaged by fire in 1895, necessitating a major restoration in 1902. The church was first mentioned in 1266.