St Michael

Font is C15.

There is a small shingled belfry with C14 style bell openings and a little broach spire over the W end of the nave.

Two C13 lancets in the N wall to the E of the vestry.

Four early C13 lancets in the S wall, three to the E of the porch, one to the W. Small, timber-framed C19 porch on dwarf stone walls.

Plain early C13 S door with continuous chamfers.

The former N door, now opening to the N vestry, is C13 and has continuous chamfers.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Good C15 font, polygonal, with quatrefoils with shields on the bowl and tracery on the stem, which may have been cut down at the bottom.

C19 nave benches of a very simple patterns with shouldered ends have C19 paint, including inscriptions and figures of saints on the fronts, a very unusual survival.

C19 geometric tiles in the chancel.

A few C19 wall tablets and some C19 glass.

Some fragments of C12 sculpture of unknown provenance said to be loose in the vestry.

HISTORY The hamlet of Chettisham is first mentioned in 1170.

The church was founded at an unknown date, but may be C12 in origin as there is some irregularity in the masonry towards the W

E ends that suggests that the C13 work was an insertion into earlier fabric.

The chancel roof was rebuilt at an unknown, possibly late medieval date, and the font was installed in the C15.

SOURCES VCH Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, 4 , 82-6 Pevsner, N., Buildings of England, Cambridgeshire , 319 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Michael, Chettisham, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * A small high medieval church, retaining considerable C13 fabric. * Fittings of interest include the C15 front and painted C19 pews.