Church of St Michael

Church of St Michael

This is a Perpendicular style church comprising a nave with a south aisle, southwest and southeast porches, a short chancel, and a west tower. The building is constructed of rubble stone with larger quoins and has a slate roof.

The south aisle features diagonal buttresses and a large stepped buttress in the centre. A Celtic inscribed stone reading "CATACUS HIC IACIT FILIUS TEGERNACUS" (Here lies Cattoc son of Teyrnoc) is set into this central buttress. The south aisle contains a three-light window to the left and a later Tudor-Gothic five-light window with hood mould to the right.

The southwest porch forms the main entrance at the left end of the south aisle. Its doorway has a two-centre arch renewed in the 1830s on 15th-century jambs with continuous moulding and cast iron gates featuring a quatrefoil frieze to the lock rail. The side walls contain two-light mullioned windows with arched heads. The 19th-century southeast porch has a 15th-century four-centred arch with continuous sunk roll moulding (possibly a reclaimed original north door) and iron gates similar to those of the southwest porch. Its side walls are fitted with glazed quatrefoils, renewed on the left. The south aisle has a two-light west window above an offset and a tall two-light east window below a plain parapet with ramped coping.

The chancel is lower and short, with two-light south and five-light east windows. 18th and early 19th-century grave slabs and commemorative tablets are attached to the chancel walls.

On the north side is a shallow organ projection of the 1830s, remodelled in 1907 when the north aisle was removed. It has diagonal buttresses, a tall two-light east window, and a small single-light in the north gable. The nave has three three-light north windows.

The three-stage tower has an embattled parapet over a moulded cornice. The parapet rises higher on the northeast side to accommodate a stair turret. The bell stage contains louvered two-light windows, with single-light windows in the lower stages beneath string courses. The west door has a Tudor arch with continuous moulding and a boarded door with decorative studs and strap hinges. On the east side of the tower is the creasing of the 1830s roof which spanned the nave and aisles.

The southwest porch has a ceiled wagon roof with moulded cornice and ribs. The south doorway is segmental pointed with continuous moulding. Two large grave slabs, dated circa 1658 and circa 1767, are positioned against the side walls. The southeast porch has a similar wagon roof with recesses built across the angles beside the south door, featuring round heads. A fragment of an early medieval inscribed stone with a 12th or 13th-century inscription over an earlier Maltese cross lies on the floor.

The interior contains a three-bay south arcade with octagonal piers, moulded capitals, and two-centred chamfered arches. The chancel arch is similar. The nave has an arched-brace roof of 1907. The chancel and organ recess have ribbed and boarded wagon roofs of the 1830s. The south aisle has a flat boarded ceiling with plain ribs, dating from 1907. The tower arch is four-centred with continuous moulding, with a similar but smaller doorway in the stage above. The tower base contains a segmental tunnel vault.

The font has a plain octagonal bowl, renewed in the early 20th century, on a 13th-century pedestal composed of four clustered shafts. It is placed within a Tudor-arched recess at the west end of the south aisle, positioned there in the 1830s. In the chancel is an 1830s reredos continuing around the north and south walls, consisting of the main lights of a former rood screen and a cornice of vine trails and billets, with some brattishing in the central section. The communion rails consist of similar rood screen lights but are plainer. Flanking the east window are white marble tablets inscribed with the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, made by Thomas & Son of Brecon in 1836. The north chancel wall displays 18th-century memorial tablets in a similar style. In the south aisle is a late 19th-century classical-style memorial tablet and a Royal Arms carved in relief by J Jones of Crickhowell, set into a square tablet with panelled borders in Gothic style, probably dating from the 1830s rebuilding.