Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A parish church with origins in the 13th century. The nave and chancel date to the 13th century, with the late 13th-century tower and North chapel added in the same period. The South chapel was built circa 1300, while the majority of the remaining structure dates to the 15th century Perpendicular period. The building underwent slight alterations in 1825, and was restored with a vestry added in 1868.

The church is constructed of random rubble with Ham stone dressings and slate roofs with coped verges. It comprises a four-bay nave, chancel, North East vestry, North chapel, North tower, two-bay North aisle, South chapel, and South porch.

The four-stage tower is crenellated with string courses. It features trefoil-headed two-light louvred bell openings, a three-light opening below which is obscured by a clock face, and a two-light opening above a ribbed North door. A projecting two-stage crenellated tower is entered at first-floor level via an external flight of steps.

The exterior displays three-light windows to the North aisle and at the gabled West end. The nave's gabled West end has a four-light window above a pointed-arch West door with rectangular hood mould, flanked by niches said to contain figures of St Michael and the Crucifixion. A three-light window appears in the South wall of the nave. The South porch is gabled and unbuttressed with an unmoulded semi-circular headed opening and a niche above. It features a 19th-century wagon roof and remains of a canopied niche in the East wall, with a pointed-arch chamfered inner doorway containing a 16th-century ribbed door.

The South porch adjoins the chapel to the East; the South wall splays outward and was supported by wooden props at the time of survey in March 1984. This wall displays a three-light mullioned window with a single-light above, both under hood moulds, along with a three-light window on the East wall. The chancel features two- and three-light windows flanking the priest's door, a diagonal buttress, and a three-light East window. A door appears on the West front, and the North chapel has a three-light window.

The interior is whitewashed and contains remains of 17th- to 18th-century wall paintings in the spandrels of the North and South nave walls. A very large semi-circular Perpendicular chancel arch dominates the interior. Tower arches to the North chapel and nave are chamfered in two orders, while a pointed moulded tower arch serves the North aisle. The arch between nave and chapel is also chamfered in two orders. The chancel has a gilded open wagon roof without a wallplate. The nave features an open wagon roof with bosses and wallplate, similar to that in the North chapel. Remains of a compartment ceiling survive in the tower, whilst the aisle has a flat roof and the South chapel a shallow plaster wagon roof. Arches of the tower are grouped in threes linked by rope-like bases. The North aisle has a two-bay Perpendicular arcade with rosette capitals.

A rood-loft door appears in the East wall of the North chapel, originally an external wall. A passage cut in the nave wall above the arch features three square openings with a cyma recta corbel. A three-light cinquefoil-headed window in the East wall serves the vestry. A niche is cut into the splayed jamb of a similar window in the North wall to the left of a table tomb without effigy, belonging to Robert Cuff who died 1593/7.

An aumbry exists in the chancel, with a crocketed niche in the jamb of the North aisle pier. The West end features a wooden gallery with raised and fielded panels and carved swags of fruit, originally painted, approached by a flight of steps set against the West wall of the North aisle.

The South chapel contains a piscina and remains of plasterwork decoration of circa 1700. Two Royal Coats of Arms are present, one dated 1636. Monuments include a good pedimented wall tablet to John Keyt died 1732, a fine slate slab to James Trivell died 1728, a collection of 17th-century floor slabs, and hatchments. A low-panelled chancel screen, Perpendicular font, reading desk dated 1634, and early 17th-century pulpit are also preserved. The chancel contains 16th-century bench ends.

The North aisle belonged to the Court Barton estate until the 20th century. Pevsner described the church as "an uncommonly interesting church".