Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A lancet-style church comprising a nave, chancel, south porch and north vestry, with a west bellcote. The building is constructed of pecked snecked grey stone with yellow sandstone dressings and slate roofs.

The south porch projects to the left of centre with a gabled front. It has raised copings, kneelers, angle buttresses to either side and an ornate finial at the gable apex. The pointed arched entrance is decorated with two orders of roll mouldings on circular columns with ringed capitals and bases, beneath a hoodmould with foliate end stops. The entrance contains double planked doors with ornate hinges and small pierced quatrefoils. A small pointed light sits to the west side of the porch.

The nave walls feature single or paired lancet windows with hoodmoulds bearing foliate end stops. A sill band runs along the south wall, which also has two buttresses positioned right of centre and at the right end. To the left of the porch is a single lancet; to the right are three pairs of lancets followed by a single lancet. The north side of the nave has a sill band and three buttresses, offset alternately left and right with one at the northwest angle. This side contains three pairs of lancets and a single lancet positioned second from the left.

The chancel is notably narrower and lower than the nave. It has two single lancets on its south side and a single lancet on the north side. Setback buttresses mark the angles of the chancel. The east window contains three stepped lancets in plate tracery with a narrow hoodmould featuring head end bosses depicting a man and a woman.

The north side of the chancel adjoins a small gabled vestry with a basement storey. A polygonal ridge stack stands to the rear. The vestry's gable end has a central planked door under a shouldered lintel. To the east are a pair of small lancets beneath the eaves. Steps on the left side lead down to the basement, which contains a planked door on the left and a small stone-blocked window with a shallow pointed head on the right.

The west end, facing the road, is more ornate than the remainder of the church. It features setback buttresses at the angles, a plinth with moulded string course, and an advanced central bay with stepped sides. The bellcote rises from this bay and contains two arched openings for bells with decorative ridge tiles to the gable. The central bay is pierced by a double-chamfered pointed arched window with a raked sill containing two lancets and a quatrefoil in plate tracery, flanked by buttresses. Above this sits a sexfoiled circular window with dog-tooth moulding and a continuous hoodmould. Single lancets to either side of the advanced central bay have sill bands and hoodmoulds bearing head end bosses, each depicting a man and a woman.

Interior

The nave is aisleless and roofed with a wide six-bay arched-brace roof carried on moulded corbels. The chancel is separated from the nave by a shallow pointed arch with two orders of chamfers dying into the imposts. The chancel roof comprises closely spaced rafters incorporating scissor-braces above a cornice featuring a nailhead frieze. The moulded rere arch of the east window has head stops showing a king and queen. A cusped doorway on the north side provides access to the vestry; it is fitted with a boarded door with strap hinges.

The octagonal font displays dog-tooth enrichment at the angles of the blank faces of the bowl, with a stem formed of clustered shafts. The pews are plain and moulded, while the pulpit is polygonal, each face containing two-light blind arches with geometrical tracery. A large organ by Peter Conacher & Co of Huddersfield occupies the south side of the nave and was installed around 1902.

The west window contains a Victorian Coat of Arms, similar to that in the west window at Gorsedd. The south wall of the nave features a window of the 1930s by Abbott & Co depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World, commemorating the Reverend Edwards, who died in 1923. The north wall of the nave has a window by the same firm showing Simeon holding the baby Jesus and Mary offering a sacrifice at the temple, with an inscription from the Nunc Dimittis.