St Michael and All Angels Church, Croft Castle.

A gorgeous setting, in the grounds of Croft Castle, for a charming church. While this church is a part of the Croft Castle grounds it is a functioning Parish church and is maintained by the parish with no direct help from the National Trust. The church has recently completed urgent repairs to the cupola roof at a cost of around £100,000.00.

One of the highlights is the fine lower figures of saints on the chest tomb of Sir Richard and Lady Croft c.1510 – reminding us that on the eve of the Commotion what we think of as fifteenth-century style and Catholic sentiment was enjoying a flourishing time. St Anthony is on the left with his usual pig (his Hospitallers were given runts that they let loose with bells round their heads to beg off the locals: Tantony pigs). On the right is St Roche bearing his leg to show the page bubo that he survived (oddly with a small person by it rather than the dog who ministered to him). Both – for ergotism (St Anthony’s Fire) and the Plague – would have been saints whose intercessions were valuable for the afflicted.

 An outstanding feature of the church is, of course, the bell-turret of around 1700 with its leaded ogee-shaped cupola.

A service of Holy Communion, using the Book of Common Prayer, is held on the first Sunday of each month at 9:30.