St Michael's Church

St Michael’s Church stands in a quiet field five miles west of Ross-on-Wye. It is built of sandstone with stone-slate roofs and has a simple plan: a three-bay nave, a two-bay chancel and a south porch. A small bellcote with a pyramidal roof crowns the west gable. The north wall shows a blocked doorway now filled by a modern window, while the south wall holds a lancet and a two-light pointed window. Inside, the ceiling is plastered and the east and south chancel walls carry 17th-century oak panelling. The church is worth visiting for its 13th-century wall paintings in red and white geometric and floral patterns. On the north and south walls these older designs are partly covered by 16th- and 17th-century black-letter texts including the Ten Commandments. A 12th-century cylindrical font with cross and interlace carving stands near a 14th-century coffin lid carved with a cross in a circle. The reconstructed Roman altar, returned in 1908, bears a worn inscription to a god of crossroads. Visitors find the choir stalls with carved angel finials from the 19th century and a probable 19th-century lectern. The porch still contains stone benches. Outside, the churchyard holds war graves of a First World War soldier and a Second World War naval officer. The isolated setting and the layers of medieval, Roman and later work make the church an unusual witness to centuries of change.