Former Church Of St Michael

EXTERIOR: the nave and chancel are C12 in date, possibly re-using some Saxon material.

The south side of the nave has a Norman doorway flanked by round-arched windows remodelled in Early English style.

The doorway has two orders of shafts with a variety of naive foliage designs to the capitals, and two orders of chevrons carved on the round arch, which has an unrelieved tympanum.

The doorway is partly obscured by the C14/C15 timber-framed and gabled porch, which is formed from jowled uprights, tie beams and raking struts, with arch braces meeting a central cusp.

The early-C13 chapel has a narrow entrance doorway with trefoil head dating from the C19 restoration of the church, with paired trefoil-headed lancets to the right of the same date.

The east end of the chancel has a Norman window remodelled as a lancet in the C13.

The north side of the nave shows clearly the arches of the two-bay arcade of the since-demolished C13 north aisle.

The west end has a single round-arched lancet window of the C12.

INTERIOR: the interior space is dominated by the Norman chancel arch, which has three orders of shafts with foliate and geometric carving to the capitals, and three orders of chevron carving to the arch.

A pointed-arched recess to the right may mark the site of a stair to a former rood loft, or might be associated with an earlier pulpit.

The west end of the nave has three massive jowled posts with arch-bracing supporting the bell-frame, which houses two bells, one of circa 1300, the other of 1701 by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester.

The place of the fourth post is taken by the blocked arcade to the north wall, from the demolished C13 north aisle.

The arcade is expressed internally by the central, circular pier with a shallow, circular capital and double-chamfered arches with polygonal responds, and some foliate carving to the capitals.

The floors are covered in terracotta tile, some with slip decoration.

The remainder of the south wall of the chancel has been largely removed in the creation of a wide arched opening with a very shallow arch, almost four-centred, with beaded moulding to the edges, giving access into the early-C13 south (Cressett) chapel.

WALL PAINTING: the Cressett chapel has a painting on its west wall dating from circa 1200.

The subjects include an angel, an enthroned king, and a broad band of foliate scrollwork in reddish-brown tones.

The style of the scrollwork is identical to that in the wall paintings at nearby Claverley, and it is to be supposed that they are by the same hand.

FURNISHINGS: the font is Norman, and tub-shaped.

There is cable moulding to the top rim and to the base, and the exterior is carved with tall, round-arched arcading.

The pulpit, which has timber panels on a polygonal stone base, dates from the C17 and has carved arcading and foliate motifs in carved lozenges.