Church Of St Michael

Church of St Michael

Anglican parish church dating from the 13th to 16th centuries, extensively restored in 1846–47 and later, with work by John Norton and Benjamin Ferrey. The building is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings, and features slate and stone tiled roofs with coped verges and finials.

The church comprises a nave with south porch, crossing tower, north and south transepts, and a chancel with a 19th-century north vestry. The architectural style combines Decorated and Perpendicular elements.

The most prominent feature is the lofty three-stage tower, supported on piers dating to around 1300 with broad mouldings and simple capitals (restored in the 19th century). The tower is strengthened by large diagonal buttresses with offsets and rises to an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. A polygonal stair turret projects from the north-west corner, topped with a large finial and weathercock. The bottom stage contains two-light windows to north and south; the next stage features a canopied niche on each face, with figures of saints restored in 1850; the bell chamber has large four-centred arch windows of four lights, transomed, with tracery both to the heads and below the transom. The majority of bell-chamber windows are blank, with only the centre two-lights featuring stone grilles.

The three-bay nave has buttresses and is lit by two and three-light windows, with a four-light west window beneath which a 19th-century memorial is set. Simple north and south doorways provide access; the south door is a good example of 15th-century tracery work, and there is a further traceried door to the north. The porch was rebuilt in 1860 and contains a tile floor and 19th-century carving of St Michael with a double-chamfered outer door opening.

The single-bay north transept has been much reconstructed and features square-headed windows with labels and a small blocked window set high on the north wall. The single-bay south transept contains two and three-light windows in the neo-Decorated style.

The two-bay chancel has two-light square-headed windows adjacent to the tower, with one lit through a pierced buttress to the south. The east window and other chancel windows display Early English and Decorated work. Gargoyles ornament the exterior.

The interior is plastered and laid with tile and encaustic tile floors. The nave has a 19th-century unceiled wagon roof which probably incorporates medieval work. Thirteenth-century rere-arches open from the chancel. A 13th-century piscina is located in the chancel, and a 14th-century piscina in the north aisle. The rood entrance survives, and there is a Decorated font with an 18th-century cover.

The church retains a notable collection of 15th and 16th-century bench ends with poppy heads. These include representations of a saint, a pelican, and tracery work; one bears the initials "R B", identifying it with Robert Beere, Abbot of Glastonbury (1493–1524). Some bench ends have undergone 19th-century restoration, and later pews include work by William Halliday.

The church contains many high-quality 19th-century fittings: a stone pulpit (1852), screen (1852), lectern (1847), carved angels beneath the tower (1855), and stained glass in the north transept (1856) and east window (1857) by John Norton, executed by Messrs Hardman. An encased 15th-century cope on the south wall of the nave features the Virgin. Fragments of mid-15th-century medieval glass survive in the south transept, depicting St Augustine, St Gregory, and St Jerome.

The church houses five bells, the earliest believed to date from 1692. Nineteenth-century wall monuments include one commemorating Colonel John Rouse Merriott Chard VC, a hero of Rorke's Drift, who lived at Pathe House in the parish. A late 19th-century organ is also present.

Despite extensive restoration, the church retains high-quality medieval work, particularly the tower, which justifies its Grade I status.