Church of Saint Michael

Church of Saint Michael

An Anglican parish church of rubble stone construction with rendered north and west walls, roofed in silver-grey slates with coped gables. The building comprises a parallel-roofed nave and south aisle, with a northeast vestry and southeast tower.

The south wall features Bath stone windows inserted in 1887 within earlier openings: a single-light window to the left of the porch, a single-light window and two two-light windows to the right, all with bicolour voussoirs. Broad plain low buttresses reinforce the southwest angle. The porch, also of 1887, is gabled with a coped gable, pointed entry, and a cinquefoil window on each side wall, with an 1887 inner door. At the right end, by the tower, is another similar but narrower 1887 porch, which replaced a window.

The rendered west end has twin gables with three buttresses and two 1887 windows, each of two lights. The rendered north wall includes a northwest buttress, five two-light 1887 windows, and an arched low doorway to a boiler room beneath the second window from the left, with an eaves chimney above. A medieval rendered vestry runs parallel to the chancel on the left, with a truncated chimney set against a low-pitched gable on its west wall. The north side has a rendered buttress to the left, and the east end features an 1887 two-light window and a pointed door approached by steps. The rendered chancel east wall has large two-step buttresses and an 1887 three-light window.

The tower, positioned east of the south aisle, has a rendered lower stage beneath a tall top stage of 1831 in squared grey limestone. The top stage features octagonal corner shafts, a coved cornice carried around the shafts, and an embattled parapet; the original design included pointed finials on the corner piers. Large three-light pointed bell-lights contain inserted Bath stone late Gothic tracery.

On the south side stands a roofless porch of 1831 with a scar of a pointed arch against the tower base. Two massive grey stone buttress piers with plain square tops (battlemented in original plans) flank a plain rubble wall between them with a low parapet (battlemented in original plans) and a Tudor-arched entry in a raised surround. Within the porch are marks of a former lean-to roof, and on the south side of the tower is raised plaster to a pointed profile with a raised plaster roundel. A blocked plain Tudor-arched door is present, as is a narrow door to a former stair on the left. The east side of the tower has buttresses and a large window with 20th-century uPVC glazing.

The interior features a pointed south door with double baize doors. Walls are plastered except at the west, where stonework reveals blocked 1831 openings: a pointed centre door and two outer gallery lights. A four-bay arcade of 1887 consists of Bath stone pointed arches with hoodmoulds and carved stops, resting on three round columns with moulded caps and bases. Roofs feature arch-braced scissor trusses on carved corbels. The south aisle has six bays; the nave has five bays and an inserted wall with a pointed chancel arch of 1887. This arch is double-chamfered with a hoodmould, and the inner chamfer rests on corbelled shafts with ornate vine and wheat capitals. Two steps lead into the chancel.

The south aisle accommodates an organ at its east end, and behind it is a large plain pointed arch into the tower, now serving as a vestry with a high flat ceiling. The outline of a blocked Tudor-arched south door and a pointed north recess (probably a blocked door) are visible here. The chancel has an 1887 boarded roof with transverse ribs and features a large pointed south arch similar to the chancel arch. An 1887 pointed door provides access to the vestry.

The aisles are stone-flagged, with early 19th-century stone paving and slate diamonds at the east end of the nave. 1887 tiles cover the chancel floor. A pointed piscina stands close to the altar.

The north vestry contains a pointed medieval stone vault. A blocked door with a segmental-arched head and a blocked pointed door to the south are visible in the north wall. A blocked 1887 door appears on the right side of the east wall. A Bath stone piscina with a gadrooned bowl, possibly of the early 18th century, occupies the northeast corner. A 19th-century fireplace is situated on the west wall.

Fittings from 1887 include a wrought-iron chancel screen, a curved-fronted Bath stone pulpit on squat columns with black marble shafts, a neo-Norman font with scalloped decoration and rope-moulding on the shaft (copied from Lamphey), rails on iron standards, chancel stalls, and pine pews. An eagle lectern dates to around 1882. The 1932 reredos, painted wood with carved figures, was designed by W. Ellery Anderson. The organ, built in 1888 by Wade & Meggitt of Tenby, has a plain pine Gothic case facing the south aisle. A panelled altar and oak linenfold side panelling date to around 1931. Panelling behind the altar at the east end of the south aisle was relocated from beside the main altar.

Stained glass windows include an east window of 1887 by Cox, Sons, Buckley & Co, featuring deep colours and depicting the Last Supper. In the nave north wall: a second window by Kempe & Co to Leslie James (died 1917); a third to H. C. Ogleby RN (killed 1918) in the style of R. J. Newbery, depicting Saints George and Nicholas; and a fourth by Kempe & Co to 2nd Lieutenant J. M. Bryant (killed 1917). The south aisle third window, by Kempe & Co to D. Jackson (died 1922), depicts the Annunciation. The south aisle west window is a First World War memorial.

Memorials, a significant collection now resited in the north vestry, include one on the south wall to Dr John Powell (died 1734) with fluted Corinthian pilasters, curved open pediment, cartouche, scrolls, and a cherub head beneath a gadrooned base, accompanied by a lengthy inscription praising his life as a Christian and physician. On the north wall is a memorial to Major David Mackenzie of Fortrose (died 1781) in coloured marble with an urn, and to Colonel Dudley Ackland (died 1795) with a draped urn on a pedestal in Adam style. The chancel contains a circa 1900 memorial to W. O. Hulne featuring a Bath stone Virgin and child relief on marble. The nave north wall displays a memorial to Canon Charles Philips (died 1853) and his wife (died 1864) by J. King of Bath, a tablet with a palm frond. A brass plaque with engraved soldiers commemorates Sergeant W. J. Rees, 1st Welsh Regiment, killed in South Africa in 1900. A brass plaque honours Annie Hustler (died 1906). A large late 19th-century brass tablet records Joshua Allen of Pembroke (died 1804), his sixteen children, and some grandchildren.