Seen from the road, St Michael and All Angels presents itself as a large suburban church in the Perpendicular style, entirely nineteenth‑century in outward appearance despite its medieval core. The rebuilding of the 1840s and later extensions at both ends have produced a long, stepped composition, with the east end raised above the slope of the ground so that the chancel stands over a room now known as the Rifford Room. The east window is relatively modest in size, set high in the wall, with five lights and typical Perpendicular panel tracery, its base filled with two rows of blind quatrefoils. North of the chancel a broad organ chamber is set transversely, its side windows reduced to single lights with a little tracery in the heads, matching the chancel windows. An L‑shaped vestry occupies the angle between chancel and organ chamber, while a low entrance passage runs across the north face of the transept.
The six‑bay aisles are treated more generously, with large three‑light windows under their own gabled roofs and embattled parapets, in contrast to the plain parapets of the eastern parts. At the west end the composition is dominated by the tower, a deliberate echo of the great Somerset towers. It rises in three tall stages with angle buttresses and a demi‑octagonal stair turret centred on the north face, carried up to parapet level. The buttresses are enriched at each stage by small blind ogee arches with finials, a minor detail that adds considerably to the richness of the design. The ground stage has a square‑headed doorway with tracery in the spandrels and, above it, a large five‑light window with a transom. The middle stage is comparatively plain, with a small two‑light window on the west face, while the belfry stage has two‑light openings filled with pierced quatrefoil slabs. The parapet is embattled and carries corner pinnacles with smaller intermediate ones. On the south side a porch with a continuously moulded outer order and engaged shafts to the inner order gives access to the church.
Inside, the walls are plastered and whitened, and the dominant feature is the six‑bay arcade between nave and aisles. The medieval piers were retained when the church was rebuilt and are lozenge‑shaped in plan, with shafts at the corners and a large wave moulding between. Their capitals carry large angel busts, and the arches themselves have fleurons set in the hollow chamfers. At the west end a tall tower arch opens into the nave, while between nave and chancel a broad arch spans the full width. The nave roof is arch‑braced; the aisles have simpler pitched roofs with tie‑beams. Over the chancel there is timber vaulting above the choir and a semi‑circular roof over the sanctuary, divided into panels.
The fittings are dominated by the marble and alabaster reredos of the 1870s, brought here from Exeter Cathedral in 1939. Designed by G. G. Scott, it is tripartite, the central and taller portion depicting the Ascension, flanked by scenes of Pentecost and the Transfiguration under elaborate canopies. The sedilia are triple, with overhanging Perpendicular tracery heads. Part of a medieval screen survives as the south parclose, its tracery standard late‑medieval work. The stone pulpit, now deprived of its original support, is finely carved with figures of the Four Evangelists and St Michael. The oak bench ends are square‑headed with borders of carved foliage. Two fonts are preserved: the one in use probably dates from the 1840s rebuilding and has a traceried octagonal bowl, while the other appears to be medieval, with a squatter but similarly traceried bowl. Several minor wall monuments from the old church, ranging from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, have been retained. Stained glass of various nineteenth‑century makers fills a number of windows. The east end of the nave and the chancel have largely been cleared of their former fittings, and there are no stalls.
The present building is the result of a sequence of nineteenth‑century campaigns imposed on an older structure. The medieval church survives most clearly in the arcade piers; the rest is progressive redevelopment. Rebuilding took place in 1844–46 under David Mackintosh, an Exeter architect whose work was mainly ecclesiastical and largely confined to Devon. In the late 1880s a new west tower was added to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and in 1898 the chancel was extended eastwards. Both these later phases were designed by Edward Hall Harbottle, a successful local architect who began practice in Exeter in 1869 after training in North Shields, and who later worked in partnership with his sons. He held a number of ecclesiastical and county surveyorships. In 1924–25 the roof was restored and the galleries removed. The result is a multi‑phase church which, despite its overwhelmingly nineteenth‑century character, still carries clear structural traces of its medieval predecessor in the surviving piers.
The 1842 Lithograph by Spreat shows the church before its substantial Victorian Tower was added.
