St Michael's Church

St Michael’s Church is a building of mixed dates, incorporating fabric from the medieval period but largely rebuilt in the 19th century. The church comprises a nave with a small west tower, a north aisle, a chancel, a transept, and a porch. It is constructed primarily of sandstone masonry, although the porch is built of limestone, the colours and textures of which are very similar. Some masonry is believed to survive from the earlier medieval church; the nave is built of random rubble, while the tower is of coursed rubble. Window and door dressings are of light-coloured sandstone ashlar, and project slightly from the wall face. The roofs are slate, with red crested ridge tiles, and all gables are topped with sandstone parapets featuring finials and carved kneelers.

The tower stands over the west gable of the nave, above a corbel table, and features a crenellated and corbelled parapet. The spire has been lost, but its corbelled base remains visible internally at the top of the tower. An unusual set of stone stairs, above the nave roof, provides access to the bellringers' chamber on the north side. The belfry windows are large single lancets, facing north, west, and south, with a pair of lancets to the east, looking towards the village. A stone with a large socket, indicative of a former preaching cross, lies close to the south porch.

The east window is a notable feature of the 19th-century restoration, with a deep trefoiled rear arch and a cluster of three marble scoinson colonettes on each side. A carved reredos and patterned tile paving are present in the chancel. Grey limestone columns in the arcade at the north of the chancel support limestone arches of a cream colour, while the arcade at the north of the nave is in a similar style, but with sandstone columns of a darker colour.

The only early feature surviving within the interior is a low recess in the nave wall near the porch, above which is a double arch supported on a central corbel. During the 19th-century reorganisation, the west end of the nave was separated to form a baptistry, with patterned tiles—some glazed and some encaustic—on the walls and floor. A 19th-century font, carved in a Norman style, is also placed here, constructed from contrasting stone types and colours to highlight each element of the bowl, shaft, and pedestal.

Early memorials are located in the south transept, known as the Paskeston Chapel or Lady Chapel. These are primarily memorials to the Roch family of Paskeston, the principal landowners of Cosheston, the earliest being to Michael Roch, who died in 1748. The rood and the screen to the Paskeston Chapel were carved by J Matthias around 1925.