Church of Saint Michael

Church of Saint Michael

Parish church of rubble stone with slate eaves roofs and bargeboarded gables with iron cross finials. The building follows a cruciform plan with a large central crossing tower, while the nave, chancel and transepts are relatively low. A south porch and northeast vestry are attached to the main structure.

Windows are generally plain square-headed two-light mullion windows in red sandstone with chamfered surrounds and leaded glazing, possibly 20th-century replacements. The nave's west end features a two-light window with voussoirs, and a large 19th-century chimney stands at the southwest corner with a buttressed front and moulded stone octagonal shaft. The south side has a porch and two two-light windows. The porch itself is gabled with a pointed chamfered entry in pink stone with tooled grey stone voussoirs and a bar stop to the chamfer. A pair of wooden gates from around 1870 hangs within. The interior of the porch has a 19th-century barrel roof in six-by-six panels. The south door is chamfered pink stone with a bar stop and features double doors of around 1870. The south transept has no plinth, battered sides, and a two-light south window.

The chancel has a plinth and a south cambered-headed two-light window with stone voussoirs, grey stone jambs and red stone cusped tracery. Its east end holds a three-light window with cambered head, the stone voussoirs and jambs in grey stone, with hollow-moulded red stone mullions. The north side has a single lancet with tooled grey stone heads. A gabled vestry adjoins to the northeast with Bath stone traceried pointed two-light to its north gable end, bargeboards, and a chimney on the east side. The north transept has one square-headed two-light window, and the nave north side has two.

The crossing tower is a tall square structure, very plain in character, with two vent loops on each side and cambered-headed bell-openings with crude stone voussoirs. Minimal corbels support an embattled parapet with moulded cast-stone copings. A recessed 19th-century octagonal short spire with fishscale slating and weathercock tops the tower.

The interior is plastered and contains fine 15th-century oak roofs. The nave roof is an open-panelled shallow curved roof in six-by-ten panels with moulded transverse ribs, probably 15th-century, though the axial pieces and bosses are renewed. A moulded wallplate runs at the top. Windows have ashlar quoins to their reveals and ashlar sills. Pointed and plastered arches lead to the centre crossing tower, with raised imposts. A flat timber ceiling on two beams spans part of the crossing. A chamfered wall stands in the northeast corner, concealing a stair tower entered from a narrow square-headed door in the corner of the north transept. The transepts have similar roofs of six-by-three panels. The north and south transept windows have stepped heads to their reveals. Two steps of very long pieces of pink conglomerate stone lead up to the chancel. The chancel roof mirrors the nave design in six-by-five panels with moulded transverse ribs and renewed axial ribs and bosses, and has a moulded wallplate. A cambered-headed north door opens to the vestry. Two steps lead to the sanctuary with altar rails, then one step to the altar. The chancel and sanctuary floors are tiled in a pattern of red, buff and black with some encaustic tiles.

The church contains many fittings dating from 1870–1874, mostly the work of Penson. A 19th-century octagonal font with trefoils in roundels and stars of David sits on a quatrefoil red stone shaft with moulded cap and base. A small broken octagonal font of uncertain date also remains on the floor. A pitch-pine octagonal pulpit with Gothic panels stands on an octagonal timber shaft. The pews are of 19th-century pine with Gothic styling, as is the reading desk and stalls. Gothic timber altar rails comprise fourteen open panels with trefoil cusping and roundels in the spandrels, the lower half pierced with two trefoils. An oak Gothic altar table stands nearby.

A remarkable carved oak reredos of 1919 by Jules Bernaerts dominates the chancel. It bears the inscription: "To the Glory of God and to commemorate the victorious restoration of peace this reredos is presented by Mr and Mrs Edward Roberts March 1919". The inscription is flanked by an oak wreath inscribed PAX to the left and a laurel wreath inscribed VICTORIA to the right. The reredos depicts the Last Supper in dramatic Baroque style in high relief.

The tower is said to retain a 15th-century oak bell-frame and contains a bell of 1686 cast by Wm and Thos Covey of Limerick.

The stained glass includes a west two-light window of 2001 by Janet Hardy depicting rural subjects. The chancel north lancet contains 19th-century stamped patterned quarries with leaf design.