Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

A small church built in the Decorated style, comprising a nave with a small belfry and spire near the west end, a slightly lower chancel, and a porch, transept and vestry on the north side.

The exterior walls, except for the porch, are constructed of axe-dressed informally coursed sandstone with window jambs in sandstone ashlar. Window and door dressings—arches, tracery, mullions and sills—are in local grey limestone. Angled buttresses are positioned at the east end and crossed buttresses at the west end.

The roof is slate with slight sprocketting at the eaves and tile ridges. Exposed rafter ends are visible at the eaves, with thin bargeboards at the verges on projecting purlins and wallplates. A small iron finial cross crowns the east end. The only coped gable is that of the north transept, which rises to a tall diagonal chimney. The timber-framed porch sits on a low sandstone plinth and features a more generously sprocketted roof with larger slates. The vestry, positioned in the angle of the chancel and transept, continues the pitch of the sprocketted eaves of the chancel roof, with its own sprocketted eaves.

The windows are notably varied and individually designed. The east window contains three main trefoil-headed lights with two quatrefoils and a trefoil above, beneath a thin label mould and relieving arch. The west window similarly has three main lights with trefoil heads within narrow pointed cusped heads and a small trefoil in the gable apex. The chancel's north and south windows are single trefoil-headed lights, each with label and relieving arch. The nave contains two windows on the north side and one on the south with two trefoil-headed main lights and a quatrefoil above. Another south nave window nearer the chancel has three trefoil-headed pointed lights in plate tracery without label. The north transept window is similar but with a label, while the vestry window has two lights and no label. The main doorway has an equilateral pointed arch; the vestry doorway features a Caernarfon arch. The belfry beneath the spire is timber-built with triple louvred openings on each face, topped by a short spire with decorative slate courses and an iron finial.

The interior features pavings and joinery of high quality. The nave contains two ranges of plain pews made from oak timber said to come from the estate. The walls are rendered except for window and door dressings. The roof comprises arch-braced common-trusses with high collars. At the left, a transept may enclose the funerary vault of an unknown family, possibly predating the present building; this vault was permanently closed when the organ was installed in the transept around 1950. At the west end of the nave are two queen-post trusses with arch bracing, supporting the belfry and spire.

One step leads up to the chancel and two further steps to the sanctuary. The chancel is fully open to the nave without an arch, emphasized by its narrower width and lower roof. A fine Minton encaustic tile pavement is laid in a diagonal pattern with the Cawdor arms (Cawdor impaling Thynne) at intersections; similarly rich patterned diagonal tiling covers the steps and lower part of the chancel. The chancel roof is a pointed barrel vault in panels with moulded ribs and carved bosses at intersections.

The altar, carved in gothic style, displays three front panels with shields bearing emblems of the Passion: the seamless garment, a ladder with spear and hyssop plant, and three nails with a girdle. A frieze above features a vine trail; above this is a cove with four-leaf flowers at intervals, a motif of the Decorated Style repeated throughout the chancel joinery, on the pulpit and font. The rear altar shelf is raised at its centre with IHS in a circle, all richly carved. A panelled reredos is carved with blind tracery and an openwork cornice. Wall panelling on the east wall flanks the altar and appears on the north and south sides of the sanctuary with similar detailing and enriched cornice; this joinery may be of slightly later date than the rest of the chancel. Single prayer desks flank the altar—a plainer example on the left and a more ornately carved double desk on the right. The pulpit stands at the right on a limestone base with trefoil-headed panels between posts decorated with four-leaf flowers at corners and in the cove of the toprail. A communion rail has carved diaper bracing.

A carved stone inscription at the right of the east window, removed from the former church, is a memorial to Anne (the supposed Duchess of Bolton), daughter of John Watkins, died 1705. A wall monument to Richard and Susannah Vaughan, dated 1811 and sculpted by J Bacon junior of London, also came from the former church; it shows a mourner kneeling beside a draped urn against a figured marble pointed panel, with the inscription beneath on a large bracketed tablet. The east window commemorates the third Earl Cawdor and his wife, 1928.

An octagonal font near the north door features carvings in circles on its faces, with a bottom moulding enriched with four-leafed flowers, an octagonal shaft and square base.

The interior is notable for the absence of choirstalls or an identifiable Cawdor family pew, despite the fine joinery and family connections evident throughout. The pavings and high-quality joinery echo similar work found in Lord Cawdor's Pembrokeshire church restorations.