Church of St Michael and All Angels

The Church of St Michael and All Angels is an Anglican parish church, primarily dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries, with substantial restoration work carried out in 1866. The church is constructed of squared and coursed rubble, with rough-dressed quoins, and has tile roofs with crested ridges, coped verges, and cruciform finials. It is built in a Decorated and neo-Decorated architectural style. The building comprises a nave, chancel, a crossing tower, north and south transepts, a south porch, and a small 19th-century lean-to vestry adjoined to the porch. The unbuttressed crossing tower is embattled, with a string below the parapet and gargoyles. It has single-light bell chamber windows with louvres and blocked two-light windows with tracery below, as well as two single-light openings with foiled heads, all with leaded lights, and a clock. The nave and chancel each have two bays, while the transepts have a single bay. Windows throughout feature curvilinear tracery, much of which has been renewed, with labels featuring carved heads as stops. A group value context identifies this church as particularly important of its type. The chancel’s north and south windows, along with the three-light pointed head east window, are of Perpendicular style. The gabled porch leads to an interior with benched seating on a flagstone floor. The interior features 19th-century roofs. The crossing is characterized by two orders of arches supported by corbels carved as heads, which in turn rest on massive lias piers pierced by squints to the chancel and the passageway between the nave and north transept. Above the arches is a cantilevered stone staircase giving access to the ringing chamber, which is reached by an external doorway. The chancel contains an aumbry, sedila, and piscina, while the transepts feature piscinae, the one on the south side being particularly fine. There is also a 17th-century coffin stool and an 18th-century chair. Other furnishings include a 19th-century pulpit, pews, font, organ, and a stone reredos. The north transept contains a recumbent effigy of Sir Simon de Bradney, in armour, dating to 1375, with a foiled canopy featuring pierced cusping and four carved heads. A 17th-century memorial is positioned behind the altar, bearing Latin text, and there are five late 18th and early 19th-century wall monuments. Stained glass from the 19th and early 20th centuries is also present. The church houses four early bells. Faculty documents relating to the 1866 restoration are deposited at the Somerset Record Office, and further information can be found in the Church Guide.