Church of St Michael and All Angels

Church of St Michael and All Angels

This parish church in Somerton dates from the early 13th century, with major reshaping in the mid-15th century and restoration carried out in 1889. It is built of local lias stone, cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings. The roofing is mostly lead sheet behind parapets, except for the chancel which has a Welsh slate roof between stepped coped gables.

The church originally had a cruciform plan but is now arranged as a six-cell building comprising a three-bay chancel, five-bay nave with north and south aisles, a north transept, and a tower that doubles as the south transept. A south porch and north-east vestry complete the arrangement.

The chancel was reshaped in the 15th century and features a plinth, offset corner and bay buttresses, and an eaves course. Its windows display early Perpendicular tracery under pointed arches with foliated stopped labels: the east wall has a five-light window, while the north and south walls each have three-light windows. A gabled vestry was added to the north side in 1770, with a ball finial to the coping, a semi-circular arched doorway, and a 'Y' traceried fanlight. A pointed arched doorway with a square label and foliated spandrels is located on the south side.

The nave has battlemented parapets and later 15th-century three-light windows with four-centred arches set in recesses. The west window is a curvilinear traceries five-light design above a deeply recessed, moulded pointed arch doorway with a flat hood and foliated spandrels. The north aisle has plain parapets and corner buttresses, with two flat-headed 15th-century windows and one with reticulated tracery. A deep moulded pointed arched doorway without label is positioned in the middle bay. The west window of the north aisle is 15th-century in style with two lights. The north transept features a cusped forking tracery window of around 1300 in its north wall and a three-light reticulated window to the east. The south aisle has a plain parapet and corner buttresses, with three reticulated windows of three lights each, displaying varying patterns. A small arched doorway sits at the east end, and the double-gabled south porch, rebuilt in 1889, contains an inner 14th-century doorway with deep moulding and label.

The tower rises in three stages from a square base with rudimentary broaches leading to an octagon above. It has doubled corner buttresses, a plinth, string courses, and battlemented parapets with corner gargoyles. A full-height stair turret rises on the north-west corner. The base features a small door in the east face and a three-light 15th-century window on the south face. Above these are a plain lancet and signs of other windows now blocked on the principal faces of the octagon. The octagon has 14th-century two-light windows in deep recesses on all faces, fitted with pierced stone baffles.

The interior contains many fine features. The chancel has a modern ceiling over a late 16th-century cornice and a reredos incorporating 17th-century panelling. Notable furnishings include an altar table dated 1626, a bishop's chair, and two matching chairs, one dated 1632. The chancel arch, probably from the early 14th century, is wider than the chancel itself. The nave retains a fine king post and panelled roof of around 1510, richly ornamented, with arcades that are probably mid-14th century in date. The aisles match this arcade work, though only a fragment of the old roof survives in the north aisle. The south transept contains two blocked 13th-century doorways and a blocked deep lancet in the west wall. A trefoil-arched piscina and a pointed arched recess containing the effigy of a 13th-century nun are also present in the south wall.

The church's fittings include a fine timber pulpit dated 1615, elaborately carved and octagonal on a thin stalk, with considerable traces of original colouring still visible. An octagonal font, probably 15th-century, with a 17th-century openwork cover, is located in the south aisle. A screen using portions of a 15th-century gallery is also in the south aisle. Many pews reuse bench ends from around 1500, though the poppyheads have been removed. Fine 18th-century brass candelabras are among the furnishings. The monuments are not of particular note.