Church Of St Michael

Parish church. The Norman origins of the church are evident, though significant alterations occurred throughout its history. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 15th century, and a Portman chapel was erected as a south aisle around 1450. The tower was rebuilt around 1540, and the original Portman chapel was demolished in 1844 before being rebuilt in 1910, at which time the south porch was relocated to the north side of the building. A vestry and organ bay were added during this period. The exterior is roughcast over lias, topped by a slate roof with coped verges.

The church is laid out with a chancel, a northeast vestry and organ bay, a three-bay nave, a south chapel, a blocked north porch (now serving as an entrance), and a west tower. The crenellated three-stage tower features diagonal buttresses, string courses, two-light louvred bell openings, a two-light opening south, a three-light west window, and a pointed arched doorway with a 19th-century door. A square stair turret rises alongside the tower, lacking battlements but retaining fragments of crocketed finials on its first stage. The north front incorporates a three-light window left of the gabled projecting Portman chapel, with a further three-light window and a door on the east return, and two additional three-light windows to the right, framing a buttress. The priest’s door is flanked by a trefoil-headed lancet in the sanctuary. Diagonal buttresses mark the east end, incorporating fleur-de-lys ties, which represent the Portman family emblem. An east window of three lights is set into this elevation, as is a single-story vestry with a lancet window, a door on the west front, and a flanking buttress. To the right are three-light mullioned windows. The north front also contains a gabled, single-story porch with a blocked, semi-circular headed opening, featuring a hoodmould and an inserted lancet window.

Inside, the church is plastered, revealing exposed rubble in the tower. The chancel has a ribbed wagon roof; the barrel vault above is plastered with moulded wall plates. The Portman chapel features a shallow-pitched, moulded compartment ceiling dated 1910. There is no chancel arch. The pointed tower arch is chamfered in two orders and flanked by corbelled pilasters. The staircase to the stair turret is accessed through a chamfered pointed arch doorway. A restored Norman doorway with chevron moulding is found on the north front. A circular font sits within the porch. The Portman chapel is panelled, with wrought-iron sconces and a brass plaque detailing family members buried in the vault beneath the nave. A brass memorial commemorates Henry Cole, who died in 1633. A Jacobean-style hexagonal pulpit is also present. Late medieval stained glass is located in the upper lights of the window on the north wall, depicting the four evangelists. Later 19th and early 20th century stained glass, including the east window and Portman chapel window, is signed by Arthur J Dix and dated 1911 and 1910, respectively. The earlier Portman chapel was demolished concurrent with Orchard Portman House, which stood northwest of the church, and is documented in Kip’s Britannia Illustrata, 1707.