Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is an Anglican parish church of medieval date, substantially rebuilt and restored in the 19th century. The building stands on Church Street in Shepton Beauchamp.

The church was originally constructed in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was restored in 1865 by the architect G.E. Street, who introduced work in the neo-Decorated style including a new clerestory, aisles and porch.

The exterior is built of coursed and squared lias and Hamstone stone, with lead-sheeted and tiled roofs featuring coped verges and finials. The church comprises a nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, a chancel with a north chapel, and a west tower.

The tower is the most prominent feature. It rises in three stages with set-back buttresses that ascend to the shafts of former pinnacles, an embattled parapet, and gargoyles. The bell-chamber windows are 2-light traceried openings with stone grilles, with blank openings continuing on the ringing chamber below. A clock with Roman numerals faces west and south. A polygonal stair-turret rises higher to the north. Quatrefoil banding with blank shields runs between the first and second stages. The west face displays a medieval figure of a bishop in a canopied niche and a 19th-century figure of St George in a niche. The west elevation features a tall transomed 4-light window, a west doorway in an emphasised surround with ornamental spandrels and flanking shafts with pinnacles, and an arcade of quatrefoils with blank shields.

The nave has a four-bay clerestory with quatrefoil windows. The three-bay south aisle is mostly rebuilt but retains a single 2-light window to the west, probably reused, with a label featuring carved heads as stops. It has a moulded parapet coping, gargoyles and buttresses. A rood-stair turret stands in the angle between the aisle and chancel. The south porch is a rebuild of the 19th century, though a medieval statue remains in the gable face.

The north aisle is of 15th-century date and has three bays with 3-light square-headed windows to the north and a 2-light traceried pointed-arch window to the west. It has a parapet with coping, a gargoyle, and a small porch with a stone roof supported on stone vaulting with moulded inner and outer doorways. A north vestry, probably dating to 1865, partially obscures the embattled north chapel. The chapel has large 3-light traceried Perpendicular windows with carved heads as label stops, gargoyles, and a tall polygonal stack.

The two-bay chancel features 2-light Decorated windows to the north and south, diagonal buttresses to the east, and a 3-light east window.

The interior has a scraped finish with tile and encaustic tile pavements. The nave is covered by a 19th-century arch-braced crown-post roof. The south aisle is under a 19th-century lean-to roof. The north aisle is under a 17th-century lean-to roof, though much renewed. The chapel is under an unceiled wagon roof of 19th-century date, though it may incorporate earlier work. The chancel is under a 19th-century unceiled wagon roof with ribs and bosses, ornamental wallplate and painted decoration.

The south aisle has three bays with 14th-century octagonal piers with moulded capitals, except for a 13th-century half-circular pier at the south-east end. The north aisle has two bays with conforming octagonal piers and a further bay to the east formed by the double-chamfered arch of a former north tower. A similar double-chamfered arch separates the aisle and chapel. The chancel arch is by Street. A panelled Perpendicular arch divides the chancel and chapel. The tower arch is a panelled Perpendicular design with a fine fan-vault featuring large bosses and a circular opening for bell-ropes.

A 14th-century moulded inner doorway serves the south porch. A good 14th-century stepped group comprises a piscina, sedilia and doorway with continuous mouldings. The walls between the sedilia seats are pierced by ogee-sided triangles and cinquefoiled circles. A Norman tub font has a 19th-century medieval-style cover with ironwork. A Perpendicular piscina and corbel head are present in the chapel.

Furnishings include a Jacobean choir and two further pairs of carved high-back chairs appearing to be of 17th-century date. Many fittings date from the restoration, including pews, a stone pulpit, a stone and wrought-iron chancel screen, choir stalls and a reredos. Ten mid- to late 19th-century stained-glass windows are present, though the window to the south-east corner of the south aisle appears to incorporate late medieval work. An early 20th-century window is in the north chapel. A small 18th-century painting of Christ hangs in the church. Several mid- to late 19th-century wall monuments are visible. A metal charity plaque is positioned under the tower. A small organ under the tower is supported on an early 20th-century Jacobean-type organ loft.

The church contains eight bells, five dated to the 18th century and two dated 1905.