Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is an Anglican parish church with origins dating back to the 12th century. It incorporates elements from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with later modifications. The church is constructed from local lias stone rubble with Ham stone ashlar dressings, and is roofed with Welsh slate laid between stepped, closed gables. A west bell turret rises from the west end.

The building comprises a three-cell plan consisting of a two-bay chancel, a three-bay nave, and a north aisle. The chancel features a plinth, angled corner buttresses, and two full-height buttresses on the north side. The east window is a 3-light ‘Y’ tracery window from the 14th century, with a stopped label. The south wall’s east window is a 2-light early Geometric tracery window set in a hollowed recess, while a 19th-century lancet window sits to the west. The north wall has a 14th-century 2-light traceried window and a single lancet, possibly dating to the 19th century. The nave has buttresses to the south-west corners and two further buttresses towards the extremities of the south wall. The south windows are 3-light; the eastern window has early Perpendicular tracery in a deep hollowed recess, and the west window has later Perpendicular tracery in a shallower recess under a stopped label. A blocked, chamfered, segmental-pointed arched doorway with a former statue niche is located between the windows. Above the doorway is visible water tabling indicating a previous porch. The west wall of the nave is largely a 19th-century rebuild, incorporating a 3-light C15 traceried window in a deep hollowed recess. The bell turret has a pitched stone roof with pointed-arched apertures for two bells, both of 17th-century date. The north aisle contains lancet windows, including a pair towards the east end, a cusped lancet, and a plain lancet flanking a 12th-century doorway. This doorway features single sideshafts, a roll-and-recess moulded arch with label, and a tympanum incorporating stones with acanthus-type decoration. The east wall of the aisle has a 3-light window with almost Curvilinear tracery, above which is a small 12th-century window. The west wall of the aisle is plain.

The interior, which was not accessible at the time of assessment, is reported to contain a low 3-bay arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches spanning irregular distances. There is no chancel arch but traces of a 16th-century rood screen are visible. The nave ceiling has been opened out, and a new roof installed in the north aisle during 1904. 20th-century carvings are present in the chancel. Notable fittings include a large, early 13th-century font with dog-tooth and cable-mould decoration, a Jacobean pulpit, fragments of a pre-Reformation altar top, a carved and painted statue niche, and a mutilated 13th-century tomb top. An inscribed memorial is dedicated to Sarah Smyth, who died in 1684. Fragments of medieval glass are located in the east window of the north aisle. The church was first mentioned in documents from the 1860s and 1880s.